Temple to Atheism

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I agree-- in this modern age, all utilities should be run as a local co-op, at most, a multi-county enterprise.  If a group of cooperative co-ops wish to pool their resources to buy a commercial project, that's fine.  But never the reverse-- the commercial project should always be the client (i.e. under the watchful eyes) of the co-op or co-ops.   Never, EVER the reverse.

[Roland Deschain]

I like the idea of a co-op, where the citizens who use the service and pay for it, actually own it. The more you use, the more you pay, as it is now, is a good model, but factor in the ownership of its users, and you essentially get a company that looks after its users instead of exploiting them. This would still need oversight, but it's a step in the right direction. Look at the large energy corporations around the world, and the abuses they get away with, and it's easy to see what's best.

Unfortunately, you'd first have to convince the people that it's in their best interests to follow this model, and looking at how people react to even just socialism in some places (eg - USA), not to mention the dream of being rich fostered by so many, I can see that it's going to be a long haul to get there. Star Trek had many things right, and socialised services just one of them.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Yes--- a system that is run by greed, or how rich can you get, will always-- without fail-- become evil.