Re: Wind energy a boon for farmers - tenfold returns !

From: Jim Greenfield (greenfield_7_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 11/23/04 

Date: 23 Nov 2004 15:19:43 -0800

jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote in message news:<3_Wdndq5w_lEyT7cRVn-pA@rcn.net>...
> In article <3c4afb26.0411221554.353fb306@posting.google.com>,
> greenfield_7@hotmail.com (Jim Greenfield) wrote:
> >jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote in message
> news:<rKWdnTEII-wCTTzcRVn-2w@rcn.net>...
> >> In article <3c4afb26.0411212321.43fd0c62@posting.google.com>,
> >> greenfield_7@hotmail.com (Jim Greenfield) wrote:
> >> >jmfbahciv@aol.com wrote in message
> news:<v5mdnc2LEMie4z3cRVn-1w@rcn.net>...
> >> >> In article <3c4afb26.0411181559.11017b5f@posting.google.com>,
> >> >> greenfield_7@hotmail.com (Jim Greenfield) wrote:
>
>> >> >The govt here in its wisdom (joke) privatised the state own
> generation
> >> >> >and billing (supply), but not the distribution network.
> >> >>
> >> >> So what the government really did was "create jobs" that was
> >> >> designed to do no useful work.
> >> >
> >> >The problem was that the "workers" as employed by the govt owned
> >> >entities did (according to neutral observers :-) ) F*A* work. The
> >> >unions could threaten supply at any time, in order to get a wage rise,
> >> >etc
> >> >The govt therefore moved that problem to the private sector.
> >> >Employees of private companies, I strongly suspect, are subject to
> >> >legally enforcable contracts which stop this threat.
> >>
> >> I'm trying not to talk about politics :-); that's what unions
> >> are all about. I was talking about the daily actions of
> >> employees and how much of it is useful work.
> >
> >Unavoidable in this context, although of late the unions have lost a
> >huge amount of their former power (due to govt actions such as this,
> >apart from memeber disenchantment)
>
> Nuts to your stated reasons ;-). Unions became yet another smothering
> management layer of work prevention.
>
> <snip>
>
> >> > .. Their volume still
> >> >apparently gets them a reasonable deal. It is the house-holder and
> >> >small business who are getting screwed.
> >>
> >> My electric bill is less than $30/mo. Before "deregulation", it was
> >> $30-$35/mo. and I had enough electric utility stock whose dividends
> >> paid the bill. I also was able to go to one place to deal with
> >> all my power problems. Now I need a flow chart that gives me
> >> directions about who to call, when to call, and where to call for
> >> each kind of problem. I opted to stay with the power generator
> >> (we were given a choice in this state to use the old way or shop
> >> around for power). Now the time period is expiring and I have
> >> absolutely no idea whatthehell I'm supposed to do other than
> >> I have to choose. Choose fucking what? I have one wire that
> >> comes into the house. From my POV, I should have one phone
> >> number to call when things go wrong. The biz has followed the
> >> telephone business model and that business is on its way into
> >> oblivion due to lack of interest.
> >
> >Yeh- some choice! Sounds like you get bargain power price,
>
> It is absolutely no bargain. I'm am getting what I pay for, namely
> bad delivery. To stay in business these companies need to remain
> profitable. To stay profitable, they need to have costs < income.
> If the income figure is forced by government to become less, then
> the expeditures of doing business have to be reduced at least
> the same amount. Since all other expenses of the company was already
> pared to minimum, the next cost-cutting is dumping people. The
> people who have to be dumped are the ones who are doing the actual
> work; the last people to be dumped are the paper pushers who
> did all the paperwork to dump the productions workers.
> And, that, boys and girls, is why IT is going offshore (IT is
> another name for paperpushing).

We seldom get a power failure (yet), and the voltage is pretty
constant (no surges). I say "yet", because each summer (peak demand
due to air conditioners),
the suppliers threaten to increase prices if we don't limit
consumption- it might over extend their production capability.
>
>
> > ... but!
> >My bill is about $70 US a month, and that doesn't include hot water
> >(gas),
> >or heating (wood fire). A household of 3/4 small house.
>
> Wow. You seem to use a lot more than I do.

1300 kwh in 90 days. This may increase a bit as we go into the
summer- turn the fridges up, and run the airconditioner a few times.

>
> >So that is just for the lights, fridge, electricals.....
> >Just had a look at the bill- a "supply charge" of $30 on top of their
> >inflated price per unit. (about 11c US per unit- kilowatt?)
>
> I have five extra charges: distribution, transition, transmission,
> energy conservation, and renewable energy @~$.04/KWH.

Incredible! There is a hole just up the road where natural gas runs a
turbine straight into the grid, and you STILL only pay a third of our
price.
> >>
> >> >> >I guess it is a more pressing worry where winter temperatures can
> kill
> >> >> >with a prolonged power failure.
> >> >>
> >> >> It's not only kill. It's also worrisome because of frozen pipes.
> >> >> One frozen pipe will condemn the building; now its inhabitants
> >> >> have no place to live.
> >> >
> >> >In that case, no way known would I depend on electricity for heating.
> >> >If Alqueda get a good hit on your grid....................
> >>
> >> I'm telling you that everybody is dependent on electricity
> >> for heating. Everything is computerized, including gas
> >> stoves. Nobody, especially the fucking politicians, is
> >> thinking, especially our Democrat party. Kerry's party
> >> line during the campaign was to hit reset on the war
> >> game and go back to the beginning of Afghanistan.
> >
> >Computerisation has certainly made the West very vulnerable
>
> It's not so much the tech as the mindset. People who think
> only higher Hertz counts is an example of this thinking.
>
> >
> >> >> They're setting themselves up for an economic depression.
> >> >
> >> >Well someone has to take up the slack in employment which technology /
> >> >computers has caused!
> >>
> >> Which was the best thing that happened to the computer biz. We're
> >> still suffering from hangovers of the slop that occurred in
> >> the 80s. The biz is starting to get back to applying CPU cycles
> >> to useful work.
> >
> >They sure do create something! How long are your supermarket qeues?
>
> Very, very long. Checkout girls used to be able to key in
> the prices a lot faster than those fucking scanners. Most
> of them had the prices in their heads. They rarely had to
> look at their keyboard since their fingers knew where
> all the keys were. It takes me 5 minutes to "logoff" using
> this fucking windows software when it used to take me less
> than a second to type K/F<CRLF>. And the system responded
> instantly to ack my command.

When standing in line, while waiting for someone to go check a price
because something doesn't "scan", wouldn't you just love to hand them
a bill for the waste of YOUR valuable time?
The latest plan here, is to get the customers to do their OWN
scanning, and pay on the honour system by card. Won't that be a hoot!!
I can just see mum (92).......

Jim G