Caesar Romano wrote:
On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:38:46 -0600, "HeyBub"
wrote Re On "Smart" power meters:

Caesar Romano wrote:
On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:17:54 -0500, EXT wrote:
Not so much "control", just a blatant method of raising the prices
while saying it is your fault it costs so much. Get used to doing
your laundry and cooking after midnight, that is when the rates
you have now will kick in, while the daytime and evening rates
will skyrocket. We have these meters here but the local utility
hasn't started billing according to time of day.

It's a form of rationing that the rich aren't subject to because
it's chump change to them.

I would rather see ration coupons wherein people could sell their
unneed coupons on the open market.

It's called "Cap-and-Trade." You're not alone in wanting it. It's
the goal of the Luddites.


Sorry, I didn't explain myself well. What I would really like to see
is about 150 new nuclear power plants built in the U.S. But that's not
going to happen, so we are going to see some kind of rationing soon.
Given that, I would rather see coupon-rationing rather than price
rationing since price-rationing only applies to the middle class.

If the price of power goes up astronomically, the "middle-class" will DEMAND
nuclear power plants. With your coupon scheme, a whole new regulatory body
will spring up to administer the coupons. There'll have to be exceptions
(like for iron lungs and exigent circumstances, agencies of government,
hospital, charitable, religious, and eleemosynary institutions), there'll be
counterfeiting and black-market enterprises, accounting gimmicks, and so on.

No, rationing by price is the only method that's been proven to work.