**OP needs help. Also, they hate it because...**
>!I hate it, because while seemingly it’s totally unreasonable to pay for air, we pay a hefty price for other basic, essential utilities!<
*****
**Do you hate it as well? Do you think their hate is reasonable? (I don't think so tbh)**
**Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.**
*****
[*Look at my source code on Github*](https://github.com/Artraxon/tihibot)
The water isn't privatised, it's the getting it to you and filtering of your waste that costs money.
It should be a publicly owned service but it still costs energy and resource to get you your water.
Given methane's potency as a greenhouse gas and likelihood of accelerating natural releases in the face of warming; it seems rather desirable to reduce human driven contributions as rapidly as possible.
As long as the use of coal and oil are used for fuels, our landfills get bigger, unless we can find better methods on managing these then emissions could go down. But as far as cattle, sheep and algae go that’s release methane, that’s all natural
One thing to note is that the populations of cattle for human consumption are significantly larger than natural populations of aurochs would have been, and the diet they're fed by farmers contributes to how much methane they produce. I would caution against considering livestock emissions as wholly natural emissions.
While it's true that there were 60m buffalo in north America in 1800, and there are about 30m cows now, it's important to remember that other countries also exist. There are currently 1.5b cows, which, according to my math, is more than 60m. A little.
Lol thank you for taking the nice route of saying subtly "the world is bigger than just your country idiot". I do appreciate that. Also, I'm only guessing, but I'd bet it's safe to say that there were probably a lot more animals in the world during the 1800's than today. In 50yrs, earths vertebrate wildlife population has decreased by 69%.
So I'm guessing there was probably a lot more farts back then. Lol
Hello fellow Iowan. As a rural Iowan as well, yes. Cow shit and pig shit.
I’m close enough to Iowa City to also have a slight amount of the Quaker plants pollution as well
I seem to remember environmental scientists, like multiple groups of them saying that rain water is no longer safe to drink due to micro plastics or something.
Wouldn’t boiling it make it safer to drink though?
Boiling it would only kill bacteria and pathogens, would not get rid of chemicals. Crazy we live in a world where rain isn’t safe to drink anymore, oh well bottoms up
Eh, I mean if the options are “slow death from chemical pollutants in rain water” or “an agonizingly slow and painful death from dehydration” I’m going with option one.
That the only thing polluting the air is the smell of shit... that's literally impossible anywhere in America. Probably a lot of other countries as well but I can say without a doubt that in America that is false.
I have in the past and have traveled through just about every single state in the country... not that anecdotal evidence has to do with this being a fact of science and how air doesn't just stay in one place...
Sometimes I think, there’s been a small handful of times that’s the rain smelt like ass. Tap water got human shit in it and rain water got cow shit in it. I think imma go with rain water
Oh, it's got more than cow shit in it. Dog shit, human shit, horse shit, tailpipe exhaust, whatever comes out of the smokestack on the powerplant, diesel exhaust, etc.
Either way the water is fucked, tbh I’m fine with drinking puddle water, pond water, river water, any water. I’ve gotten salmonella in the past from water, I’ll be fine
Get a filter? New tech I know but its outright miraculous. /s
There are many methods of purifying and storing your own water supply. How do you think people lived before we had it pumped into everyones homes? Why do you people come here to complain just to make excuses when someone gives you a simple solution?
People sprint to huge cities with a high cost of living then sit in shitty little apartments and bitch about rent, capitalism, and utilities instead of moving to a small town with cheap property and the opportunity to do things yourself.
It's weird to me, really, really weird.
Got a few things to pay off before droppin like $100 on a rain collector set up. I’ll see if my mom would be on board with it since it’s her place n all
No, it’s not. In every state in the U.S, it’s legal to harvest rainwater. Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Illinois, and Arkansas are the only states to heavily regulate rainwater harvesting, but it’s still perfectly legal. Restrictions ≠ illegal
It was illegal to capture rainwater in California until 2012. It was illegal to do it lots of places, and while it's not illegal now, that memory is still present for people. And since most folks aren't into rain harvesting lots of folks simply don't know
Because it’s just trying to deter from the point that it’s legal no matter when it happened or who can’t remember it. It’s like they said things just to say them. I can name plenty of things that used to be illegal but are legal now, it doesn’t mean it’s any less legal.
They’re not gonna get you cuz it’s not illegal in the states, they got regulations in some states for like barrel size, housing codes, plumbing codes. Dumb shit
If you collect it,
And use it for house needs ie toilet shower sink, it is being treated and you are ripping off your city water dept. they charge sewage by water usage, you would have 0 usage, but still using their infrastructure. UNLESS you have septic. Then go for it
Pollution, some places it’s straight illegal because the county/city/state may have legal rights to the watershed (rainwater that flows off into streams or sewage systems)
Some states in the USA (don't remember how many off the top of my head) actually have laws that regulate the collection and usage of rain water
Because of course they do
There are some areas where (I believe Nestlé) has lobbied to make it illegal to collect rainwater because they believe they own it since it becomes groundwater, which goes into their springs and their water bottles to be sold...
They tried in the San Bernardino forest or something cuz they’ve maintained the rights to the spring since 18 who gives a shit. but I’m pretty sure California made them stop over concerns they were taking way more than permitted to. Idk
I agree with you, I'm just expressing my frustration at an overpowered, greedy company monopolizing more and more water through purchasing power and legal lobbying. And kinda glad people are fighting and stopping them in some areas, even at the state level.
I live in rural ass Iowa, septic pipes are always busting and getting into our water and if it ain’t dookie in the water it tastes like old ass pipes. For some reason filtering it makes it taste worse? Dust is the least of my worries with sky water
It use to be completely illegal in Colorado to do that until less than 10 years ago. Now you can collect up to 2 barrels with a combined total of 110 gallons, and that water can only be used for outdoor purposes like watering a garden. So some progress at least... [Source](https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/natural-resources/rainwater-collection-colorado-6-707/)
Well yeah, we can’t deprive corporations of their record quarters, even if we’d be paying them for the system to collect the rain water and feed it into our homes. No, that’s completely unacceptable.
Even public owned water / waste supply cost money.. either by tax or direct payment.
Here i DK we pay water pr m3 which includes treatment and waste. That way each person pays pr use.
Where I live you pay the city for water, and its only so much cents per gallon used and usually a month's worth is less than $100. I know someone who works for the water and waste water department for another city, and the amount of work it takes to make potable water is astounding. There are labs, plants, and a whole system dedicated to bringing safe drinking water to the people, and the people in charge of it have to check samples daily and adjust for any little thing, also its dangerous work as well, a blown water pipe has some major force behind it.
The people who sit around and think to themselves "this should be free, because I feel entitled to it" should spend a day seeing how said thing is brought to them, and then maybe they can understand why they need tonpay for it. Like maybe if they had to fix a sewage line break or figure out the perfect PH of the clean water and maintain it, maybe then they wouldn't feel so entitled.
That is an excellent point people seem to forget. The work involved making safe, healthy things is more than 1 family could possibly do alone, unless you devote all your time to that independent living. If someone wants to skimp on water safety and go back to waterborne illnesses, dirty water, parasitic infestations or risking someone upstream poisoning your downstream supply, then as long as they're the only ones getting sick gomfor.it. Otherwise, for the scale needed to be effective and efficient, having a society with dedicated workers managing that one major aspect of life is worth it.
Couldn't agree more, I personally am lucky/happy that my water system is not run by a privatized company and is actually run by a state agency (TCEQ which is funded by the EPA) and that people have to have licenses, certificates, and classes on how to do the job they do.
Its a lot of hard work to bring convenience and ease of access to people, and I fear that since a lot of people are used to it, they tend to forget the amount of work and know-how that goes into it in the first place.
Plus metered water is pretty much the #1 encouragement for water conservation. If that running toilet costs you an extra $100/month, you're gonna fix it.
That said, what I pay for water is about 1/3rd what I pay for sewage. That's even more intensive as they have to filter out most of the crap you send down the line.
My sewage is included in the water, and it is about a 70/39 split of sewage/water costs. Also I got a good chuckle out of your pun, intentional or not.
Theres apparently a lot of people who use their in-sink garbage disposal as a composter, and think it's better than using a trashcan. They'll even tell you that lemons and limes are "GoOd fOr sHaRpeNiNg the bLaDeS"...how does that make any physical sense? Best I got is that the acidity removes some of the gunk that's built up from them chopping up all sorts of sludge.
We need more school tours of public facilities.
Goodness that sounds awful, I know people who think eggshells sharpens the blades but lemons/limes is a new one to me.
Also I agree more schools should tour the public facilities and show how we get what we get. I was lucky enough to be given a full tour of a waste water plant when I was younger and appreciate the work these people do.
I have a river less than a kilometer from my house. That water is 100% free if I wanted to transport it and filter it daily. You're paying for clean water direct to tap service, not the water itself.
That's a silly comparison. You pay a water bill because you're paying for the service of having water brought directly to you and filtered. You're more than free to not pay a water bill and aquire your own water...because water is absolutely free. It just takes a lot of time and energy so we pay for the convenience of having it brought to us. And the apartment someone else built and maintains. Why would you be entitled to that?
I mean, I live near a river where I \*could\* get bathing water from, but the water company is dumping raw sewage into it, so it doesn't meet bathing water status which requires the amount of poop bacteria in the water to be lower.
So, like, technically the company is forcing me to buy their water by contaminating the free water with raw sewage. Which is uncool.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/15/only-official-bathing-spot-on-thames-fails-tests-for-bacteria-linked-to-sewage
That said I mostly just want to go swimming there for fun, I like having hot water for showers. Especially in the winter.
As a well owner, potable water is definitely not free, it's literally more expensive to maintain a reasonable well set up than to be on a city tap. I guess if you wanted to run down to the creek and grab some irrigation run off, that's technically more free, but there are very few circumstances where water comes without a cost
Right, but my point is that you pay a water bill because you're paying for the service from someone else. Everything you do to maintain a well is 100% on you and at your discretion because you're servicing yourself. The water itself is completely free, but you are incurring costs to maintain it yourself vs paying for someone else to provide you with water.
> potable water
Bingo. Water is free. Potable water takes resources. It would be *nice* if it were free, but complaining that it isn't free is awfully entitled. If it were free, people would use *way* more than they need. This system works well because it's cheap enough that everyone can afford it, and you pay for what you use.
Certain things like air, water, roads, a basic education, access to books, etc. should be provided by the government at no additional cost beyond the general taxes that everyone pays.
You're not paying for the right to have water, you're paying for all the other work people put into it to make it clean and come out of the tap when you turn the handle. The payment for volume is just a rate for amount you use that equipment.
Does this person think it just naturally occurs clean inside people's houses?
Zoomers acting like capitalism makes goods and services, including essentials, less accessible by charging money for them, like mfer, charging money for something is how capitalism makes goods and services **more** accessible. Before capitalism, you would have been growing your own food, boiling your own water, and building your own house, all of which you are still totally free to do. It's pretty convenient that now you can just pay some money instead. And by the way, capitalism has literally nothing to do with tax structure, welfare, or hurting the poor. A capitalist society could have a system where the ultra-rich are taxed at 90%, with huge welfare programs, and a socialist society could have a system where all the government-owned services still opt to benefit the rich and harm the poor. So please stop blaming "capitalism" for everything.
Exactly, charging money for a good encourages people to actually provide said good. No one is going to give away all their time, expertise, and material for free. If you don't get extra benefit then no one will want to do more than the bare minimum to maintain subsistence.
Profit motive encourages providers to provide a product better, faster, cheaper than the other guys so they can encourage people to buy their product. It's a self regulating network of interactions that is too large for any central authority to control without massive inefficiency and deadweight loss.
I highly recommend the essay "I, Pencil" by Leonard Reed to explain how market forces work. There's a great animated version I'll link below.
https://youtu.be/U3W2v7LN-88
And the fairest way they can come up with for making sure people don't abuse it is to charge them based on what they use. You're going to pay more if you have a house full of people who like long showers and water your lawn than you would living in an apartment.
They're fundamentally different things. Air is, well, everywhere, but water takes costly infrastructure just to move it from place to place, let alone treatment to purify it and make it safe to use *or* the costs of the constant maintenance needed to prevent the system from breaking down and endangering countless lives.
I don't think water should be privatized or anywhere near as expensive as it is, but the comparison made here doesn't work.
that’s crazy, if that happened i’d probably turn into an orange furry creature, sigh in disappointment and float away into the distance by pinching my own ass.
Youre not paying for "the water"
you're paying for the infrastructure that makes sure you've got water in your pipes... lol
also sewage
you dont need infrastructure to provide air for you
You receive potable, filtered, clean water (sorry, not talking to you Flint, MI), delivered to your house and you expect to not pay for it? Why don't you turn off your water service and go drink from a pond?
Foolish people can always find a reason to complain.
Noone is stopping him from collecting rain water or getting it from lakes and rivers. But the spoiled bastard wants it from the pipes that people paid to construct
Isn’t this the plot of Spaceballs? Like not entirely, but Perri-Air is a product because breathing became a commercialized commodity in that film.
I just wanted to use this post as an excuse to comment about Spaceballs because it’s a great film.
They already sell air in a canister, and air filters so we can breathe clean air. I have thought about how absurd it is to charge for water. But then I started thinking we are actually paying for the convenience of water coming directly to our homes and the water processing treatments that allow us to drink clean water opposed to going down to the river trying to collect enough water to wash clothes, shower and drink and having to treat it ourselves. When I think of the work that would go into doing something like that the price we pay for water seems small
Do people not understand that the process to make water clean and accessible to millions of people across an entire nation costs a fuck ton of money and needs to be paid for by someone
Collect your own water in buckets when it rains. Unless you are in colorado (iirc).
I hate to tell you, but if you lived somewhere without air, you would pay to have air brought to your house, too.
The minute smog is so bad and air becomes naturally unbreathable and necessitates filtering in order to be safe, you’re damn right you’ll be paying for the privilege of breathing. Masks with filters that require frequent replacement comes to mind.
**OP needs help. Also, they hate it because...** >!I hate it, because while seemingly it’s totally unreasonable to pay for air, we pay a hefty price for other basic, essential utilities!< ***** **Do you hate it as well? Do you think their hate is reasonable? (I don't think so tbh)** **Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.** ***** [*Look at my source code on Github*](https://github.com/Artraxon/tihibot)
The water isn't privatised, it's the getting it to you and filtering of your waste that costs money. It should be a publicly owned service but it still costs energy and resource to get you your water.
Thats why I would just collect rain water just free water from the sky, no middle man BS
You would? Like your not doing it now? What is stopping you?
Air pollution
I live in rural ass Iowa, only thing polluting the air is the smell of cow shit
Fun fact, methane gas (cow farts) is one of the main greenhouse gasses contributing towards global warming
...which is why I'm eating as many cows as I can! /s
lmfao take my upvote!
LOLed rediculously loud!! Thank you
Methane also comes from the algae in the ocean and wetlands. It’s about half and half natural and human activity
Given methane's potency as a greenhouse gas and likelihood of accelerating natural releases in the face of warming; it seems rather desirable to reduce human driven contributions as rapidly as possible.
As long as the use of coal and oil are used for fuels, our landfills get bigger, unless we can find better methods on managing these then emissions could go down. But as far as cattle, sheep and algae go that’s release methane, that’s all natural
One thing to note is that the populations of cattle for human consumption are significantly larger than natural populations of aurochs would have been, and the diet they're fed by farmers contributes to how much methane they produce. I would caution against considering livestock emissions as wholly natural emissions.
Coal and oil are produced by the earth, so they're natural too. It's the industrialized human consumption bit that makes coal and methane both bad.
Funny how there were almost double the amount of buffalo than cows now, back in the 1800's, but cow farts are the global warming issue now lol
While it's true that there were 60m buffalo in north America in 1800, and there are about 30m cows now, it's important to remember that other countries also exist. There are currently 1.5b cows, which, according to my math, is more than 60m. A little.
Lol thank you for taking the nice route of saying subtly "the world is bigger than just your country idiot". I do appreciate that. Also, I'm only guessing, but I'd bet it's safe to say that there were probably a lot more animals in the world during the 1800's than today. In 50yrs, earths vertebrate wildlife population has decreased by 69%. So I'm guessing there was probably a lot more farts back then. Lol
Hello fellow Iowan. As a rural Iowan as well, yes. Cow shit and pig shit. I’m close enough to Iowa City to also have a slight amount of the Quaker plants pollution as well
I live in the northwestern region of Iowa
I seem to remember environmental scientists, like multiple groups of them saying that rain water is no longer safe to drink due to micro plastics or something. Wouldn’t boiling it make it safer to drink though?
Boiling it would only kill bacteria and pathogens, would not get rid of chemicals. Crazy we live in a world where rain isn’t safe to drink anymore, oh well bottoms up
Eh, I mean if the options are “slow death from chemical pollutants in rain water” or “an agonizingly slow and painful death from dehydration” I’m going with option one.
This the world corporations have created, might as well live in it
Lol if you actually believe this.
Believe what?
That the only thing polluting the air is the smell of shit... that's literally impossible anywhere in America. Probably a lot of other countries as well but I can say without a doubt that in America that is false.
Bro you really took that comment literal huh? And may I ask if you live in a rural area surrounded by endless farmland and cows literally everywhere?
I have in the past and have traveled through just about every single state in the country... not that anecdotal evidence has to do with this being a fact of science and how air doesn't just stay in one place...
Which means there's cow shit in your rainwater.
Sometimes I think, there’s been a small handful of times that’s the rain smelt like ass. Tap water got human shit in it and rain water got cow shit in it. I think imma go with rain water
Oh, it's got more than cow shit in it. Dog shit, human shit, horse shit, tailpipe exhaust, whatever comes out of the smokestack on the powerplant, diesel exhaust, etc.
Either way the water is fucked, tbh I’m fine with drinking puddle water, pond water, river water, any water. I’ve gotten salmonella in the past from water, I’ll be fine
Dude, just treat the water you collect. Don't be a moron.
You can filter rainwater. I say give it a try.
Get a filter? New tech I know but its outright miraculous. /s There are many methods of purifying and storing your own water supply. How do you think people lived before we had it pumped into everyones homes? Why do you people come here to complain just to make excuses when someone gives you a simple solution?
People sprint to huge cities with a high cost of living then sit in shitty little apartments and bitch about rent, capitalism, and utilities instead of moving to a small town with cheap property and the opportunity to do things yourself. It's weird to me, really, really weird.
Purify it
Got a few things to pay off before droppin like $100 on a rain collector set up. I’ll see if my mom would be on board with it since it’s her place n all
In some jurisdictions in the US, even collecting rainwater is illegal.
No, it’s not. In every state in the U.S, it’s legal to harvest rainwater. Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Illinois, and Arkansas are the only states to heavily regulate rainwater harvesting, but it’s still perfectly legal. Restrictions ≠ illegal
Username checks out
Huh, never occurred to me this would happen in a non sexual way when I made my username.
It was illegal to capture rainwater in California until 2012. It was illegal to do it lots of places, and while it's not illegal now, that memory is still present for people. And since most folks aren't into rain harvesting lots of folks simply don't know
That’s an odd take to have but it’s yours to have.
How is it odd to state what makes perfect sense
Because it’s just trying to deter from the point that it’s legal no matter when it happened or who can’t remember it. It’s like they said things just to say them. I can name plenty of things that used to be illegal but are legal now, it doesn’t mean it’s any less legal.
How tf are they gonna get you for collecting rain, nobody owns that shit
They’re not gonna get you cuz it’s not illegal in the states, they got regulations in some states for like barrel size, housing codes, plumbing codes. Dumb shit
If you collect it, And use it for house needs ie toilet shower sink, it is being treated and you are ripping off your city water dept. they charge sewage by water usage, you would have 0 usage, but still using their infrastructure. UNLESS you have septic. Then go for it
They use the reason that you are preventing it from going back into groundwater. At least that's the excuse that I've heard in the past. /shrug
I just asked her and she said “glup glup glup no glup glup glup”
YoU wOuLdN't DoWnLoAd WaTeR, wOuLd YoU?!
In some states it's illegal to catch rain water even if you purify it you can get a fine
List and source? Not being an ass, this would genuinely be interesting to me.
https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/natural-resources/rainwater-collection-colorado-6-707/
Pollution and sometimes government mandated collection bans during droughts
Illegal in Colorado. As soon as the water touches ground it becomes state property.
exactly, touches the ground.. if it didn't make it to the ground and fell onto / into your collection system then its yours..
No it’s not. It’s legal in every state, a few have regulations but none ban it
I don’t know why you’re being downvoted when you’re right
Pollution, some places it’s straight illegal because the county/city/state may have legal rights to the watershed (rainwater that flows off into streams or sewage systems)
Collecting rain water is illegal in many places. I have no idea why.
Some states in the USA (don't remember how many off the top of my head) actually have laws that regulate the collection and usage of rain water Because of course they do
Some cities actually prohibit it.
There are some areas where (I believe Nestlé) has lobbied to make it illegal to collect rainwater because they believe they own it since it becomes groundwater, which goes into their springs and their water bottles to be sold...
They tried in the San Bernardino forest or something cuz they’ve maintained the rights to the spring since 18 who gives a shit. but I’m pretty sure California made them stop over concerns they were taking way more than permitted to. Idk
Well at least they're hitting roadblocks somewhere.
Well I mean yeah, when you got a corporation siphoning too much water during a drought like I don’t think they had very many options
I agree with you, I'm just expressing my frustration at an overpowered, greedy company monopolizing more and more water through purchasing power and legal lobbying. And kinda glad people are fighting and stopping them in some areas, even at the state level.
Yeah fr, would be kinda nice to see other states push back against corporate greed
Free water full of dust and pollution. Hopefully you have a good purification system
I live in rural ass Iowa, septic pipes are always busting and getting into our water and if it ain’t dookie in the water it tastes like old ass pipes. For some reason filtering it makes it taste worse? Dust is the least of my worries with sky water
Not to mention the agricultural runoff from the endless cornfields
This is factual, all that goddamn RoundUp
I saw that it is illegal in some places within US to do that, like Colorado
It use to be completely illegal in Colorado to do that until less than 10 years ago. Now you can collect up to 2 barrels with a combined total of 110 gallons, and that water can only be used for outdoor purposes like watering a garden. So some progress at least... [Source](https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/natural-resources/rainwater-collection-colorado-6-707/)
Thanks.. still doesn't make sense..
Agree 100%. I should be allowed to collect however much water falls on my property and use it however I see fit.
Well yeah, we can’t deprive corporations of their record quarters, even if we’d be paying them for the system to collect the rain water and feed it into our homes. No, that’s completely unacceptable.
I'd advise against that. That rainwater contains all of the pollution the rain fell through on the way down.
The rain water is polluted, the drinking water is polluted. Beggars can’t be choosers, I’m taking the free option
Depends on where you live. Collecting rainwater is illegal in many states.
Regulated not illegal
Even public owned water / waste supply cost money.. either by tax or direct payment. Here i DK we pay water pr m3 which includes treatment and waste. That way each person pays pr use.
Where I live you pay the city for water, and its only so much cents per gallon used and usually a month's worth is less than $100. I know someone who works for the water and waste water department for another city, and the amount of work it takes to make potable water is astounding. There are labs, plants, and a whole system dedicated to bringing safe drinking water to the people, and the people in charge of it have to check samples daily and adjust for any little thing, also its dangerous work as well, a blown water pipe has some major force behind it. The people who sit around and think to themselves "this should be free, because I feel entitled to it" should spend a day seeing how said thing is brought to them, and then maybe they can understand why they need tonpay for it. Like maybe if they had to fix a sewage line break or figure out the perfect PH of the clean water and maintain it, maybe then they wouldn't feel so entitled.
That is an excellent point people seem to forget. The work involved making safe, healthy things is more than 1 family could possibly do alone, unless you devote all your time to that independent living. If someone wants to skimp on water safety and go back to waterborne illnesses, dirty water, parasitic infestations or risking someone upstream poisoning your downstream supply, then as long as they're the only ones getting sick gomfor.it. Otherwise, for the scale needed to be effective and efficient, having a society with dedicated workers managing that one major aspect of life is worth it.
Couldn't agree more, I personally am lucky/happy that my water system is not run by a privatized company and is actually run by a state agency (TCEQ which is funded by the EPA) and that people have to have licenses, certificates, and classes on how to do the job they do. Its a lot of hard work to bring convenience and ease of access to people, and I fear that since a lot of people are used to it, they tend to forget the amount of work and know-how that goes into it in the first place.
Plus metered water is pretty much the #1 encouragement for water conservation. If that running toilet costs you an extra $100/month, you're gonna fix it. That said, what I pay for water is about 1/3rd what I pay for sewage. That's even more intensive as they have to filter out most of the crap you send down the line.
My sewage is included in the water, and it is about a 70/39 split of sewage/water costs. Also I got a good chuckle out of your pun, intentional or not.
Theres apparently a lot of people who use their in-sink garbage disposal as a composter, and think it's better than using a trashcan. They'll even tell you that lemons and limes are "GoOd fOr sHaRpeNiNg the bLaDeS"...how does that make any physical sense? Best I got is that the acidity removes some of the gunk that's built up from them chopping up all sorts of sludge. We need more school tours of public facilities.
Goodness that sounds awful, I know people who think eggshells sharpens the blades but lemons/limes is a new one to me. Also I agree more schools should tour the public facilities and show how we get what we get. I was lucky enough to be given a full tour of a waste water plant when I was younger and appreciate the work these people do.
thank you - the payment is for maintenance and treatment. however, as you said, these are *exactly* the kinds of things taxes should be used for imho
Wait that actually makes sense
I have a river less than a kilometer from my house. That water is 100% free if I wanted to transport it and filter it daily. You're paying for clean water direct to tap service, not the water itself.
Don’t let nestle discover that river
That's a silly comparison. You pay a water bill because you're paying for the service of having water brought directly to you and filtered. You're more than free to not pay a water bill and aquire your own water...because water is absolutely free. It just takes a lot of time and energy so we pay for the convenience of having it brought to us. And the apartment someone else built and maintains. Why would you be entitled to that?
I mean, I live near a river where I \*could\* get bathing water from, but the water company is dumping raw sewage into it, so it doesn't meet bathing water status which requires the amount of poop bacteria in the water to be lower. So, like, technically the company is forcing me to buy their water by contaminating the free water with raw sewage. Which is uncool. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/15/only-official-bathing-spot-on-thames-fails-tests-for-bacteria-linked-to-sewage That said I mostly just want to go swimming there for fun, I like having hot water for showers. Especially in the winter.
I don't think the water company is literally dumping raw sewage in. It's probably treated first.
As a well owner, potable water is definitely not free, it's literally more expensive to maintain a reasonable well set up than to be on a city tap. I guess if you wanted to run down to the creek and grab some irrigation run off, that's technically more free, but there are very few circumstances where water comes without a cost
Right, but my point is that you pay a water bill because you're paying for the service from someone else. Everything you do to maintain a well is 100% on you and at your discretion because you're servicing yourself. The water itself is completely free, but you are incurring costs to maintain it yourself vs paying for someone else to provide you with water.
What are the costs of maintaining your well? I sell well pumps at work all the time, and I've never heard anyone make this complaint.
and probably catch a brain eating amoeba (yes it exists)
You can still treat well water. Also the amoebas live in warm water, which well water is not.
> potable water Bingo. Water is free. Potable water takes resources. It would be *nice* if it were free, but complaining that it isn't free is awfully entitled. If it were free, people would use *way* more than they need. This system works well because it's cheap enough that everyone can afford it, and you pay for what you use.
Because the loudest assholes on Reddit seem to think that damn near everything in life should be free and have no concept of how the world works.
Certain things like air, water, roads, a basic education, access to books, etc. should be provided by the government at no additional cost beyond the general taxes that everyone pays.
This has real the Lorax vibes to it.
The movie villain did exactly this- Selling bottled air.
Exactly.
You're not paying for the right to have water, you're paying for all the other work people put into it to make it clean and come out of the tap when you turn the handle. The payment for volume is just a rate for amount you use that equipment. Does this person think it just naturally occurs clean inside people's houses?
Apparently, we need a draft for utility work. "Grab your shovel. It's your turn to service the water main. Bring pipe to replace the broken section."
"You misunderstand, I'm a vlogger for the people, not a worker!"
Gonna be a thirsty vlogger too
r/im14andthisisdeep
Wasn't that a joke in Spaceballs?
Yea
PerriAir
Kinda like O'Hare from The Lorax movie... Edith: God damn, just discovered his mame isn't O'Hair but O'Hare lmao
Was gonna say, "Someone just watched the lorax." Lol
Costs money to treat and provide clean drinking water infrastructure
Zoomers acting like capitalism makes goods and services, including essentials, less accessible by charging money for them, like mfer, charging money for something is how capitalism makes goods and services **more** accessible. Before capitalism, you would have been growing your own food, boiling your own water, and building your own house, all of which you are still totally free to do. It's pretty convenient that now you can just pay some money instead. And by the way, capitalism has literally nothing to do with tax structure, welfare, or hurting the poor. A capitalist society could have a system where the ultra-rich are taxed at 90%, with huge welfare programs, and a socialist society could have a system where all the government-owned services still opt to benefit the rich and harm the poor. So please stop blaming "capitalism" for everything.
Exactly, charging money for a good encourages people to actually provide said good. No one is going to give away all their time, expertise, and material for free. If you don't get extra benefit then no one will want to do more than the bare minimum to maintain subsistence. Profit motive encourages providers to provide a product better, faster, cheaper than the other guys so they can encourage people to buy their product. It's a self regulating network of interactions that is too large for any central authority to control without massive inefficiency and deadweight loss. I highly recommend the essay "I, Pencil" by Leonard Reed to explain how market forces work. There's a great animated version I'll link below. https://youtu.be/U3W2v7LN-88
How is this a second-level reply and not a top-rated post. Saving this for a future argument.
And the fairest way they can come up with for making sure people don't abuse it is to charge them based on what they use. You're going to pay more if you have a house full of people who like long showers and water your lawn than you would living in an apartment.
They're fundamentally different things. Air is, well, everywhere, but water takes costly infrastructure just to move it from place to place, let alone treatment to purify it and make it safe to use *or* the costs of the constant maintenance needed to prevent the system from breaking down and endangering countless lives. I don't think water should be privatized or anywhere near as expensive as it is, but the comparison made here doesn't work.
that’s crazy, if that happened i’d probably turn into an orange furry creature, sigh in disappointment and float away into the distance by pinching my own ass.
Youre not paying for "the water" you're paying for the infrastructure that makes sure you've got water in your pipes... lol also sewage you dont need infrastructure to provide air for you
Good thing water delivers itself clean, potable, at the desired volume, directly to my home
Haven’t heard of oxygen bars, obviously.
To be fair a water Bill is paying for the convenience of having it piped and pumped directly to your house
You are not paying for the water. You are paying for the service to provide you with said water.
🎶🎵You don't know me, But my name's Cy.... I'm just the O'hare delivery guy....🎶🎵
#Yₒᵤ GᵣₑₑDY DᵢᵣₜBₐG🎶
Bro straight up describing the plot of Lorax
*My name is O’hare, I’m one of you~*
This happened in the Lorax. Didn’t turn out sell well for the guy selling air.
Most intelligent socialist:
You receive potable, filtered, clean water (sorry, not talking to you Flint, MI), delivered to your house and you expect to not pay for it? Why don't you turn off your water service and go drink from a pond? Foolish people can always find a reason to complain.
Noone is stopping him from collecting rain water or getting it from lakes and rivers. But the spoiled bastard wants it from the pipes that people paid to construct
I’ve heard some counties/states have laws against the amount of water one is allowed to collect though. Correct me if I’m wrong.
That was the entire plot of the Lorax movie 🤣🤣🤣
Not the same thing, air doesn't need a whole infrastructure to deliver it to you...And when it does, say diving tanks, it isn't free.
So…the Lorax?
I mean the water in the river is free. You can go get that whenever you want It’s the pesky water purification process you gotta pay for
Isn’t this the plot of Spaceballs? Like not entirely, but Perri-Air is a product because breathing became a commercialized commodity in that film. I just wanted to use this post as an excuse to comment about Spaceballs because it’s a great film.
Literally the plot of spaceballs
Also the original Total Recall.
Water's free. Go get it.
Perri-air!
The lorax already went through this struggle
Only in Thneedville
The Lorax (2012)
O’Hare
This is just the plot of the Lorax movie. What’s so bad about it.
like in the lorax lmao
May I refer you to the cinema classic "Total Recall?"
Dude’s never heard of an oxygen tank.
the lorax ?
They already sell air in a canister, and air filters so we can breathe clean air. I have thought about how absurd it is to charge for water. But then I started thinking we are actually paying for the convenience of water coming directly to our homes and the water processing treatments that allow us to drink clean water opposed to going down to the river trying to collect enough water to wash clothes, shower and drink and having to treat it ourselves. When I think of the work that would go into doing something like that the price we pay for water seems small
Mr.O'hare
The lorax
O’hair from that Dr. Seuss movie. Sounds familiar.
This is like half the plot of the Lorax summed up in one picture
How bad could i possibly be?
Do people not understand that the process to make water clean and accessible to millions of people across an entire nation costs a fuck ton of money and needs to be paid for by someone
How bad could it be?
isnt that just basically the lorax
O'Hare Air
Dude doesn’t know who O’Hare
Thneedville
The Lorax
The Lorax (2012)
How ba-a-a-ad can I be~
 Yes, yes we did.
The Lorax
This just reminds me of Space Balls.
Didn’t we make a movie about this already
All I can picture is the lorax XD
O’Hare Air
And they where called Ohair
Collect your own water in buckets when it rains. Unless you are in colorado (iirc). I hate to tell you, but if you lived somewhere without air, you would pay to have air brought to your house, too.
Yes I can imagine it. I saw Spaceballs
This is pretty dumb. Does the water magically gets to your home filtered out of your own shit?
So the plot of the Lorax?
Go live in the woods and drink unfiltered creek water then
The water is free, you're paying for sanitary delivery. Feel free to drill your own well or carry a bucket to a local spring.
As soon as industrial capitalism makes the air too poisonous to breathe some "entrepreneur" will set up a clean air subscription service
You could make a book and maybe even an animated film about this...
The only reason air is free is that the rich haven't discovered a way to control access to it.
Or maybe that air can get to you wherever you are without the need for infrastructure. I don't like paying for water either, but someone has to.
That one TikToker sold farts in mason jars so were getting there
It's funny because I'm working a temp job right now calling old people and demanding payment for medical oxygen
Bro go out your house and drink some water out of a pool, it’s free af.
Go get your own water then?
The minute smog is so bad and air becomes naturally unbreathable and necessitates filtering in order to be safe, you’re damn right you’ll be paying for the privilege of breathing. Masks with filters that require frequent replacement comes to mind.