>Time to "de-link" through a movement to refuse the socialization of
>losses? :)
And write "Non serviam" on your VISA bill.
Doug --------
What's funny is that I am about as delinked as it gets.
My bill was $21.24 last month---up from around 4.90 last year and then about 7.50 in the last few months or so. I mean it is an explosion, but it will have to go asymptotic before I feel it.
Chata O. mailed me off list about subscriptions to other companies offering lower rates. But I live in a building that is so old and remodeled that I am not sure I actually pay for all the gas and power I use---the meter lines are split up in a mess, so I suspect my neighbors pay some part of what is actually connected to my place. One neighbor knocked on my door a few years ago wondering about his bill which was about three or four times mine. We traced out his lines and the gas meter he paid on was also connected to the laundry drier in the basement and the electricity powered the hall lights. So now the landlord pays most of his utility bill.
Technically PG&E shut off my gas three or four years ago when they installed new meters on the same crazy quit lines. But I just uncapped my line, and reconnected it, ignoring whatever warning shit they sent me. Finally, I started getting regular bills, so I paid them. And then there is the phone which is in somebody else's name---some kind of poverty discount I think some friend had about fifteen years ago.
The last owner of this building was so obnoxious she actually spent several nights in jail rather than fix the building code violations muni court had ordered her to repair.
In the old rent resistance days we used to pay rent to a collective bank account and wait out that owner in court. Hopefully some irate citizen action group is organizing something similar over utility bills.
Meanwhile, some of the formerly PG&G owned utility plants, now under bogus private authority are selling power on the spot market at fantastic profits---rumor has it they're making 500%.
As for my MasterCard, writing non serviam on my statement wouldn't do much good. I don't owe anything on it, but they keep raising my credit limit. This month it went up to 13,500. These guys are completely off the hook.
Chuck Grimes