Give til It Hurts
Along with my PG&E bill I recently received notice of a wonderful new opportunity to atone for my sins of energy consumption and at the same time support those who overcharge me for using it.
Under their new “ClimateSmart” [tm] program, I can “balance out the greenhouse gas emissions associated with [my] energy use by investing in environmental projects in California that absorb or reduce greenhouse gases.” I donate money to PG&E and they spend it on things they say are environmental projects that will neutralize the effects od my profligate lighting, heating and computer use. The fine green print at the bottom of the page says: “The Climate Smart program is funded by PG&E customers in accordance with a decision by the California Public Utilities Commission. To make participating customers climate neutral, PG&E may enter into greenhouse gas emission reduction contracts where the reductions occur over time into the future.”
This reminds me a lot of the moves a few years ago by the for-profit St. Joseph Health system to ask the public for donations for a new heart center. The new heart center would then charge donors and non-donors alike fees for medical services. It would be like the owners of property asking for donations to put up a theater where they could charge you to watch movies. This is a whole new way of creating investor capital. You say, "Just give it to me."
Meanwhile, Rob Arkley asks for donations to his free, for-profit newspaper designed to put the Time-Standard out of business for opposing his wife's political ambitions. It's perfectly legal. It's capitalism, and it's what made this country great.
The same rationale is used with the new “Universal Health Care” schemes being floated by those in elected office working for the insurance industry. The problem is that the people selling insurance and medical care charge too much for people to afford it, so many are without coverage. Eventually that means they don't get medical care, and they die. The solution? Make insurance mandatory for everybody. Just like they did when car insurance rates got so high people were starting to go without. If you make it mandatory, rather than letting the market regulate prices (or, God forbid, legislate price controls) you guarantee higher profits for the insurance companies, and since they can pay more, more money goes to the health care providers. They in turn give more to our elected officials, and everybody is happy.
Well, almost everybody. The people who count, anyway.
The important thing is that the polloi will THINK that those in charge are doing something about the problem, while making damn sure nothing IS done that will interfere with their profitability, their 12 to 40 million a year.
It's the American Way.