Comments on: From the Waterlogged Desk of Me http://stopthecap.com/2009/06/29/from-the-waterlogged-desk-of-me/ Promoting Better Broadband, Fighting Data Caps, Usage-Based Billing, & Other Internet Overcharging Schemes Thu, 24 May 2012 00:06:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Uncle Ken http://stopthecap.com/2009/06/29/from-the-waterlogged-desk-of-me/#comment-5041 Uncle Ken Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:45:56 +0000 http://stopthecap.com/?p=3449#comment-5041 I almost forgot "Happy forth of July." I almost forgot “Happy forth of July.”

]]> By: T.M. http://stopthecap.com/2009/06/29/from-the-waterlogged-desk-of-me/#comment-5009 T.M. Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:12:29 +0000 http://stopthecap.com/?p=3449#comment-5009 Corning Mayor may try to challenge Massa. Wonder if any of his backers are big cable? http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20090701/NEWS01/907010346/1003/Corning-mayor-to-challenge-Massa-for-29th-District-seat Corning Mayor may try to challenge Massa. Wonder if any of his backers are big cable?

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20090701/NEWS01/907010346/1003/Corning-mayor-to-challenge-Massa-for-29th-District-seat

]]> By: Uncle Ken http://stopthecap.com/2009/06/29/from-the-waterlogged-desk-of-me/#comment-4976 Uncle Ken Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:51:27 +0000 http://stopthecap.com/?p=3449#comment-4976 KP: Most businesses, towns, cities, states, the US are so broke spending way more then they take it. Today it is considered normal for all of them to fleece everybody for every cent they can get. Sure TW wants you to pay for upgrades so does everybody else and the sad part is if it keeps up the whole thing is going to come crashing down. People are broke the UK is broke to. KP: Most businesses, towns, cities, states, the US are so broke spending way more then they take it. Today it is considered normal for all of them to fleece everybody for every cent they can get. Sure TW wants you to pay for upgrades so does everybody else and the sad part is if it keeps up the whole thing is going to come crashing down. People are broke the UK is broke to.

]]> By: KP http://stopthecap.com/2009/06/29/from-the-waterlogged-desk-of-me/#comment-4969 KP Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:13:17 +0000 http://stopthecap.com/?p=3449#comment-4969 Phil , since this seems to be a sort of catch-all section, it seems suitable for me to post an item that wanders outside the normal territory of this site - but not by much. In an earlier comment on this site I mentioned that Time Warner's justification for its proposed pricing scheme amounts to using its customers as a source of funds for upgrading its infrastructure, and that it should be raising such capital from investors, then charging appropriately those customers who want to buy its upgraded service. Well, lo and behold, what should I see on the web but a letter of to the editor of the Observer newspaper in the UK from a reader complaining that Thames Water wants to do the very same thing: ---------- Thames Water wants its customers to fund a tunnel ("Record profit water firm raises prices", News, last week). I thought that in the capitalist system it was the shareholders who provide the capital, getting their reward as dividends. If customers are to provide capital as well as running costs, shouldn't they be given shares in exchange for the capital element of their charges? Otherwise the shareholders will get the benefit of the customer's investment. Geoffrey Bailey Taunton, Somerset ---------- Is there some pattern being established here? Is there maybe a course called "Turn All Your Customers Into Investors" that some business school is offering for the executives of shareholder-owned public services (preferably monopolies or oligopolies)? Once this kind of thing gets a foothold, it sticks - as did, for example, the economic dogmas of Milton Friedman and his associates at the U. of Chicago. Here are links to the letter http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jun/28/your-letters-observer and to the original news item http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jun/21/thames-water-profit-utilities-bills Phil , since this seems to be a sort of catch-all section, it seems suitable for me to post an item that wanders outside the normal territory of this site – but not by much.

In an earlier comment on this site I mentioned that Time Warner’s justification for its proposed pricing scheme amounts to using its customers as a source of funds for upgrading its infrastructure, and that it should be raising such capital from investors, then charging appropriately those customers who want to buy its upgraded service. Well, lo and behold, what should I see on the web but a letter of to the editor of the Observer newspaper in the UK from a reader complaining that Thames Water wants to do the very same thing:

———-
Thames Water wants its customers to fund a tunnel (“Record profit water firm raises prices”, News, last week). I thought that in the capitalist system it was the shareholders who provide the capital, getting their reward as dividends. If customers are to provide capital as well as running costs, shouldn’t they be given shares in exchange for the capital element of their charges? Otherwise the shareholders will get the benefit of the customer’s investment.
Geoffrey Bailey
Taunton, Somerset
———-

Is there some pattern being established here? Is there maybe a course called “Turn All Your Customers Into Investors” that some business school is offering for the executives of shareholder-owned public services (preferably monopolies or oligopolies)? Once this kind of thing gets a foothold, it sticks – as did, for example, the economic dogmas of Milton Friedman and his associates at the U. of Chicago.

Here are links to the letter
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jun/28/your-letters-observer

and to the original news item
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jun/21/thames-water-profit-utilities-bills

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