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I can't make the same reach you are about Nestle's CEO or Nestle as a company and their objectives. I'm trying to find a position I can agree with. If the water is being controlled and it requires payment, then in theory it can be shut off. Whether it is a government entity or a private company, the water is still off without payment. Are you advocating that all water should be free? Just some of it? None of it? I can't tell.
Where I live, we can have a well. I think that is the way it should be. Government run, at least it's done at or near cost and they work with you if you have trouble for a while. Business run, nobody would have a chance. The moment you can't pay, they shut you off. It's very dangerous. I can grow food if I need to supplement my ability to eat, but I can't get to the water if some company prevents me from having a well because it bought the water rights. Plus, the environmentalists and the elites in this world have said that the number of people the earth can sustain long term is only 500 billion. I don't like the implications of that.... especially if they own all water rights.
You are assuming your own worst scenario for private water companies and have assumed the best scenario for municipal water companies. At some point both should be able to shut off your water if you don't pay your bills over a long enough period. Government can mandate that water can't be shut off until X months have passed without payment whether private or municipal.
Same conditions in at least many northern states when it comes to shutting off heat during the winter.
Municipalities can force you on to municipal water/sewer and can keep you from having your own well. If I lived closer to the street, they would have done the same to me. No option.
See my point?
You are assuming your own worst scenario for private water companies and have assumed the best scenario for municipal water companies. At some point both should be able to shut off your water if you don't pay your bills over a long enough period. Government can mandate that water can't be shut off until X months have passed without payment whether private or municipal.
Same conditions in at least many northern states when it comes to shutting off heat during the winter.
Municipalities can force you on to municipal water/sewer and can keep you from having your own well. If I lived closer to the street, they would have done the same to me. No option.
See my point?
You are assuming your own worst scenario for private water companies and have assumed the best scenario for municipal water companies. At some point both should be able to shut off your water if you don't pay your bills over a long enough period. Government can mandate that water can't be shut off until X months have passed without payment whether private or municipal.
Same conditions in at least many northern states when it comes to shutting off heat during the winter.
Municipalities can force you on to municipal water/sewer and can keep you from having your own well. If I lived closer to the street, they would have done the same to me. No option.
See my point?
Which is why I believe we should be able to use well water as opposed to municipal. I really only made an exclusion for cities because wells are impractical. You did not address the cost though. Have you looked at the price of bottled water? What do you think they would do if they owned all the water rights? At least with municipalities, if they made it too expensive, you could vote the idiots out of office and put someone else in charge. You can't do that with a corporation. They would just tell you to go dehydrate to death.
Do you believe water is a basic human right? According to Nestlé CEO water is a foodstuff that should be privatized, not a human right. Nestlé CEO Peter Brabeck says that with the global population rising water is not a public right, but a resource that should be managed by businessmen. Please do share your thoughts.
Read more at Nestlé CEO Says Water Is Food That Should Be Privatized - Not A Human Right - American Live Wire*|*American Live Wire
Back then, Nestlé's response was that their critics should focus on doing something to improve unsafe water supplies, which contributed to the health problems associated with bottle feeding. I spent 30 years doing just that in Mozambique, South Africa and elsewhere. So it was appropriate that water brought me together with Brabeck.
I don't like the way companies such as Nestlé promote bottled water, turning one of life's essentials into a brand that only the better-off can afford and undermining the value of public supplies in the process.
But I have to acknowledge Brabeck's efforts to get business and governments to work together to manage and protect the world's vital water resources.
I guess I would like a list of what everyone considers to be a basic human right. If I dig a well on my property then it is my water. If I grow a tomato then it is mine. How many objectors to what this guy said actually pay a water bill?
The infrastructure and maintenance is paid for by tax money, not by Nestle. The materials and labor to put in the infrastructure was paid for by tax money, not by Nestle. The water you use in your home is paid for by you and brought to your home by tax money, not by Nestle. The water was / is in the ground or taken from a river. Nestle did not create the water in some chem lab or factory. Nestle CEO nor any other company has a claim to the water.
You didn't answer the question. As for cost, you and others are comparing everything to the price of bottled water. Privately run water systems don't bottle water and you assume this because that is one product that Nestlé sells. Do you really make the reach that people are going to fill their bathtubs with bottled water. Have a bit of sense please.
I ask again, is there any point at which someone's water should be turned off for nonpayment--whether municipally run or private? Do you understand that government regulates private water and can still define the rules whether over themselves or private companies?
Finally, it isn't a private company forcing my neighbors to hook up to municipal water and sewer, it is the government. No choice, no discussion. Better pay your bill on time or eventually you will be cut off. Governments can do that whether you vote some individuals out or not.
I said that I don't like government ordered water or business regulated water. I said that cities were the exception because it's impossible for wells in the city. I also said that government is preferable to business because they aren't there to male a huge profit. Nestle wants to profit from this. We use "bottled" water as a reference because that is what business has today. They make a huge profit on it. Do you really believe they are going to be fair with their pricing if they control all of the water?!?!?!?!? Yeah, just like with gasoline. They just say "if you can't afford it, don't drive". They will be saying, "if you can't afford it, don't live!"
I know someone who works for DELCORA. They forced people onto the public water system and the public sewer system and it's managed by this business. Their water and sewer prices more than tripled and older residents were actually forced out of their homes because of this company. This is exactly what you are advocating for.
And for the final time, I will ask my question again: "Is there any point at which someone's water should be turned off for nonpayment--whether municipally run or private?"
I don't presume to tell you for what you are advocating, I would appreciate you not presuming for what I advocate.
You say that it is impossible for wells in the city because it is impossible. Based on what? Perhaps you are thinking New York or a large city rather than just "city".
You say that government is preferable to business because they aren't there to make a huge profit, yet what incentive do they to be efficient or even to not force those same people out of their homes because of water prices?
In the example you give, the government defined the parameters under which the water company can operate and yet when the water company operated under those parameters you blame the company. Where is the logic in that? Where was the sainted government protecting its citizens from the evil water company? What kind of shape was the system in when the municipality turned it over to this "business" to run? It's easy to look for blame, but it takes a bit longer to look for causes.
I repeat again, I'm advocating for government oversight of private water in terms of quality, performance metrics and profit margin. I don't want the government in business and I don't want business in government. Your only solution to a bad deal with government is to vote someone out, while my solution is to have penalty clauses that encourage private water businesses to be efficient and effective.
As for the Nestle's CEO, I didn't hear him proposing for Nestle's to move from consumer packaged goods into municipal water management. That sounds like a major strategic shift. Should water be managed? Sure, to some degree. People get cranky when they turn their faucet and clean water doesn't come out. They get even crankier when no water comes out.
And for the final time, I will ask my question again: "Is there any point at which someone's water should be turned off for nonpayment--whether municipally run or private?"
You are advocating for business run water supply. That's what this thread is about and you are arguing for business control of water rights. therefore, you are advocating our water rights be given to business.
You don't listen/ read very well. I DON"T LIKE EITHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I was talking major metropolitan areas. My town of 2500 people is on water supplied by 3 wells. Our town is self sufficient. My water costs are also well below average for the country. We also have our own power company and our power is only 13 cents per kilowatt hour! If you can't understand that business charges more for water than government does, well, I'm sorry about that. If it were possible, I would that every person in the country could have a private well to control their own water. I also have my own filtering system at home. One that can purify sewage into drinkable water. I got that because the towns well got contaminated a couple years ago and I didn't find out until 12 hours later. But, if I were to get cut off, I can purify rain or stream water to supply it for my family. I will never allow myself to get cut off by government or business again! You go on believing that Nestle will be fair once they own the water rights. I will watch as people thirst to death because of people like you.
You are being dense or obtuse. I have consistently advocated for government control of water under the operation of business conforming to government standards. Anything else you think I'm saying is your own strawman.
I've asked you three times a question you have refused to answer about non payment for water regardless who is in control and whether anyone should be cut off.
Go back to arguing with yourself, I'd rather not join in.
You are being dense or obtuse. I have consistently advocated for government control of water under the operation of business conforming to government standards. Anything else you think I'm saying is your own strawman.
I've asked you three times a question you have refused to answer about non payment for water regardless who is in control and whether anyone should be cut off.
Go back to arguing with yourself, I'd rather not join in.
A business providing water is no different than a government doing it--they both are making money off you.
Except business will charge as much as the market will bear. Government will only charge what it can and still get re-elected. That could be a big difference. In our area, when business get in the middle, water and sewer rates tripled.
Well my local government has informed us they will be raising the water rates significantly because consumption is supposedly down and costs are up.
So government controls the resource, sets the rules and decides profit. Sounds just like government run except there is a needles middlemen profiting.
Like I said, NO nobody should ever be denied what should rightly belong to the public! No man should be able to put another's life in peril for money. That is why I have a way to purify my own water. No man is ever going to my family it has to die...Including people like you who want to strong arm people into submission to government and industry.
IS THAT CLEAR ENOUGH FOR YA?
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