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That Americans have to pay to survive in any capacity- food, healthcare, shelter… it’s the sign of a sick society. My daughter asked me why we have to pay a bill to get water in and sewage out of our house instead of just have that be a government thing. She’s only 13 and even she realizes capitalism is fucked up.
That’s not empirically true. I pay for water as a flat rate in Quebec as part of my municipal taxes, as do all of my neighbors, and I don’t see people engaging in flagrant water wastage. Lawns routinely go yellow during the hottest parts of the summer, I rarely see people washing their cars, and low flush toilets are getting increasingly common.
I’ll grant you that Montreal does seem to have slightly higher usage per capita. But I’m not sure the extra pain in the ass of managing water meter infrastructure would be meaningful to reduce water usage to be in line with metered locations, when we’re talking about a difference of 17L a day.
There’s a little bit of nuance here, “for profit” isn’t the same as “for greed”. Organizations of any kind - corps, non-profits, governments - have to remain essentially “solvent” or “profitable” to even operate - they can’t function just perpetually burning through resources. A medical org, even one that’s a “corporation”, can run a profit but not be governed by greed (though obviously that’s not the case everywhere right now).
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That Americans have to pay to survive in any capacity- food, healthcare, shelter… it’s the sign of a sick society. My daughter asked me why we have to pay a bill to get water in and sewage out of our house instead of just have that be a government thing. She’s only 13 and even she realizes capitalism is fucked up.
And if you start shitting in a bucket and pouring it outside they will arrest you.
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That’s not empirically true. I pay for water as a flat rate in Quebec as part of my municipal taxes, as do all of my neighbors, and I don’t see people engaging in flagrant water wastage. Lawns routinely go yellow during the hottest parts of the summer, I rarely see people washing their cars, and low flush toilets are getting increasingly common.
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Ok. The EPA estimates that the average American uses 82 gallons a day as of 2015, which comes out to 310L.
EPA link
By contrast, McGill University cites that the average Canadian uses around 329L a day.
McGill water usage page
Montreal, specifically as an unmetered water city, estimates 327L a day.
City of Montreal annual water usage report
I’ll grant you that Montreal does seem to have slightly higher usage per capita. But I’m not sure the extra pain in the ass of managing water meter infrastructure would be meaningful to reduce water usage to be in line with metered locations, when we’re talking about a difference of 17L a day.
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A private company handles our water and sewage.
A public utility handles mine and yet it still costs money. Odd.
Maybe this 13 year-old isn’t the oracle I initially suspected
I’ll take things that never happen pls
Lots of 13 year olds are dumb, doubly so if their parents are dumb, and think “capitalism is when things cost money”
You’re right. It is dumb to not understand the difference between privatized services and government services…
For profit healthcare would be the same as a for profit fire department. Absolutely insane.
I live in the SW USA, and until very recently, we had to pay the fire dept a monthly fee to be able to call them to come to our house in case of fire.
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Absolutely. Binding any basic need to profits is atrocious if you think about it.
There’s a little bit of nuance here, “for profit” isn’t the same as “for greed”. Organizations of any kind - corps, non-profits, governments - have to remain essentially “solvent” or “profitable” to even operate - they can’t function just perpetually burning through resources. A medical org, even one that’s a “corporation”, can run a profit but not be governed by greed (though obviously that’s not the case everywhere right now).