Deposits

We give deposits .... utilities esp ... you cant get a phone, electricity, water.  They keep this money for years and they dont pay taxes these utility companies.   El Paso Electric has the highest rate in the country.  I cant help but wonder how much interest on our money they make over the years, millions.  Imagine all those deposits totaling billions of dollars across the country.  Now I bet this would pay a few student loans, a few prescriptions, maybe some meals for the homeless.

People that rent also leave deposits, and often the renters dont return the money.   When they do return it they dont return the interest they made.  I wonder how they account for it.  Maybe its in Accounts Payable, or Deposits Payable, then they divert it and give themselves bonuses, golden parachute retirements, then they go belly up.   They took the money.

Maybe the deposit should be the equal of one share of stock, then they would pay interest and eventually give the person another share.  I dont know it looks good in theory, but people, they steal.  So you cant have them holding somebody elses money.  Now the share holders can vote, so they can vote for the CEO, the rates, the pensions, the salaries. 

Or uncle sam could take it and shore up our economy .... yea, like thats going to work.  Imagine and these are public utilities, we actually have appointed officials looking out for us ....thats a joke, brothers in taxes. 

When the power is out, they still charge you, when the phone goes out, they still charge you, when the water main breaks because the utilities have not change the pipes since the renaissance, and the water goes down the streets flooding our homes, they still charge you.  They say it is the infrastructure, something somebody else should take care of so the floods dont occur, tear up the roads and property, just like an act of god.  Dieu ex Machina.   On occassion the gas lines leak, and the gas seeps under our streets or buildings, and the next thing you know .... an explosion.  You have no heat, but they still charge. 

Sometimes they all go off at the same time, no heat, no electricity, no gas, no water, no communication, and they still charge.   Oh boy we can expect rolling black outs. 

I do wonder a bit about the people up north, they know it is going to snow, it happens every year, but they dont cut the trees, or the branches, then they dont have electricity.  Then they wait for strangers, sometimes soldiers, sometimes prisoners, to come and restore the power, get the trees out of the way, put out the fires. 

You would think they would go out, cut the trees, split the logs, get them in a pile and use them in the fireplaces ..... no way.   You would think they would set up tents inside, get the kids in the sleeping bags, show them how to cut firewood, cook a stew in the fireplace .... No not these guys, they blame it on acts of god, wait for the Red Cross, move in with mother.  They wont cut a hole in the ice and fish, no sir, not in America.