Just Another reason the Middle Class needs a revolution

If Confucius were alive today he might ask what is the difference between and armed robber and a Wall Street banker. The answer to this question would be as follows: The armed robber is guilty of a crime when he puts a gun to your head and demands all your money and robs you. A Wall Street banker puts a law book to your head and you are guilty of a crime if you resist being robbed of all your money.

Take the story of that vipers nest of corporate thieves known as AIG who were the recipients of billions in tax dollars from the bailout of Wall Street. In return for our largess the corporate criminals along with the credit card industry has rewarded our generosity with predatory lending rates, exorbitant bank fees, loan shark interest rates and then there are the obscene Wall Street bonuses and using our money to lobby Congress to pass laws against the best interests of the Middle Class. As Yasha Levine notes on Alternet they have even sneakier ways of robbing us as well.

If we take a little trip to Clinton and Middlesboro, Kentucky we will come across one of those little thefts that has left some residents forced to chose between water and food. These two little towns in rural southern Kentucky  have around 12,000 residents with a per capita income of $ 13,189.00 a year. As Levine notes this is just a few hundred dollars more than they could make if they lived in Mexico. Welcome to America as a third world nation.

On top of that the unemployment rate hovers around a mind boggling 30%. Many are even unable to get unemployment because the state is as broke as the residents of Clinton and Middlesboro. Into this breach steps AIG to prove that no matter how bad things are they can always get worse.

In 2005 AIG loaded up with fraudulent cash from the mortgage derivatives scam decided that public utilities like water might be a good investment for speculative trading and for just plain old plunder since no matter what the price you still have to have it.

Public Citizen, at the time suggested that this will lead to higher rates, loss of local accountability, along with declining customer service, repair and maintenance. Some things just aren't meant to be based on profitability. But our corrupt state and federal government both there begging to be bought allowed it to happen.

What Aig was looking at when it bought Utilities Inc. was that international corporations were reeling in 20 to 30% profits.  Food and Water Watch a consumer watchdog group notes that these profit levels are achieved by raising rates at least 50%  above what a public utility charged and pocketing the difference. Public Citizen sarcastically noted that this how you release the creative potential of the Free Market.

One way to release the greed potential of the Free Market is to create a whole new billing system and making it so confusing the average citizen has no clue what it says except the payment due portion. In this way you can double bill, and double penalize when the bill isn't payed, send the bills out late or not at all and assess penalty fees. One month the bill would include sewer fees the next it wouldn't and you would be assessed penalty fees for not catching it on your bill and oh did I mention that Utilities Inc demanded a 50.8% fee hike to pay for the electronic stealing.

And no this sort of thing isn't accidental at all it is done purposefully and absolutely intentionally. Many of us have dealt with the same things with banks and credit card companies and all the cell phone scams and con jobs. We know better than that.

The companies financial expert put things very succinctly if unexpectedly honestly. She explained it this way. " The fifty percent rate increase will allow the utility to earn a common equity cost ratio of 11.60% to 12.10%.  In the present market, that is an attractive return on investment." The oil and natural gas industry can only stand in awe of stealing this open and naked. This is robbing from the poor to give to the idle Rich.

All in all this forced many people to have to choose between eating or having water. People on a fixed income wouldn't be able to handle this kind of rate increase. Of course AIG closed the local office so customers couldn't call locally to complain and because the area is so rural and isolated many had no Internet access so they wrote hand written notes about the hardships this caused. Ms. Levine published some in her Alternet article.

Ms. Levine's article closed with a question all of us should ponder. As our cities and states continue to face budgetary issues they will increasingly resort to public sell offs of utilities such as water and sewer systems as assets to pay off debts. This will allow the corporate crime cartel on Wall Street to take control of our water, electricity and gas supplies maybe even our public education system as well.  Privatized corporate ownership for profit of public utilities presents us with an even bleaker and more impoverished future than it already sometimes looks like we will have. Increasingly it looks like our choices are revolt or dictatorship of the wealthy. I know what I choose and isn't in favor of the rich.