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How Would A Free Market Deal With A Severe Drought?


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HOLA441
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HOLA442
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HOLA443

Just wondering how a proper free market would deal with a severe drought?

how does the water industry operate in USA......Midwest especially texas is feeling the pressure at the moment

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HOLA444

Just wondering how a proper free market would deal with a severe drought?

I'm guessing it's quite a free market as it stands.

The water companies get to charge us for water but restrict the way we can use it.

They allow thousands of gallons to be lost in broken pipes, tell Joe Public that they cannot use a hose to water some crops they have growing in the back garden, but are happy to allow thousands of gallons to be used as a water feature in Trafalgar Square.

If we end up with standpipes I like to think it is so much worth it to wander down to the local park and look at the amount of water being wasted to show what a great country we live in.

2012, Olympics, a nation surrounded by water.

No water sports please, that would be the icing on the cake.

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HOLA445
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HOLA447

Plugging the leaks in the pipes would be a start.

I was reading an article that claimed UK water authorities are currently spending far more on fixing leaks than the value of the saved water.

It's actually uneconomic, but the regulator insists on it because the media is so fixated on water leaks! The water companies themselves want to invest the money in aditional supply and purification, with a certain level of leaks as being simply the cost of operation, but the regulators (non-engineers to a man and disabled minority lesbian) are driven by PR and moralising rather than facts.

Just saying...

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HOLA448

I was reading an article that claimed UK water authorities are currently spending far more on fixing leaks than the value of the saved water.

It's actually uneconomic, but the regulator insists on it because the media is so fixated on water leaks! The water companies themselves want to invest the money in aditional supply and purification, with a certain level of leaks as being simply the cost of operation, but the regulators (non-engineers to a man and disabled minority lesbian) are driven by PR and moralising rather than facts.

Just saying...

I think you've provided the answer to the OP's question.

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HOLA449

Poor people would die of thirst.

But wouldn't the kindly rich step in and give some water to all of the "poor people" in return for, say, some work (down the mines or in their factories or something)?

Edited by SHERWICK
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HOLA4410

In America isn't Lake Mead (near Vegas) running dry?

When I went on a heli tour to the Grand Cannon the pilot was telling me how it was running dry, but he couldn't really answer my question when I said they should let less water downstream - the reservoir had to fill up from nothing in the first place!

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HOLA4411

Just wondering how a proper free market would deal with a severe drought?

What, exactly, is a free market?

I suspect only a few have any idea what a free market actually is.

Might be interesting to discuss it though....... won't happen, of course.

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HOLA4412

I expect water would become more expensive and everyone would be metered.

No-one would die of thirst, but you might think twice before running a bath if you were really poor. Currently it's around 15p. Must be well over a week of drinking water.

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HOLA4413
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HOLA4414

I expect water would become more expensive and everyone would be metered.

No-one would die of thirst, but you might think twice before running a bath if you were really poor. Currently it's around 15p. Must be well over a week of drinking water.

....It will still cost more to heat it than run it........instead of the water being flushed down the plughole it should be used to flush the toilet or water the veg patch.....we need to start changing our ways of thinking and doing what we have always done when having been so used to abundance all around. ;)

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HOLA4415
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HOLA4416

..Or perhaps, the water that is processed and purified becomes more expensive, and local solutions startt o develop for where water is needed for other tasks. Local supplies for washing clothes, a well in the garden for watering the plants, etc.

Water demand drops, and an equilibrium is reached.

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HOLA4417

Just wondering how a proper free market would deal with a severe drought?

One of the problems we have is that when the utilities were privatised, the government of the day listened to merchant bankers and not engineers.

Instead of selling off each local utility as a single unit, they should have separated the delivery network (for water that means the pipes) from the supply/treatment works and billing organisation. The local network should then have been passed the local authorities to be run as a non-profit organisation (think roads, street lights etc).

This arrangement would have enabled multiple providers to set up and to genuinely compete on price and quality. The customer would also be able to move seamlessly between suppliers and a real free market would automaticly develop.

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HOLA4418
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HOLA4420

Plugging the leaks in the pipes would be a start.

Why? The 'low-hanging fruit' has already been sorted. The others are possibly uneconomic or will cause huge disruption for little gain. For example, there are areas of London where the economic cost of plugging leaks would make desalination a cheaper option.

Edited by mfs1959
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HOLA4421

Why? The 'low-hanging fruit' has already been sorted. The others are possibly uneconomic or will cause huge disruption for little gain. For example, there are areas of London where the economic cost of plugging leaks would make desalination a cheaper option.

....Didn't the water companies know what they were buying? ;)

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HOLA4422
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HOLA4423

A monopoly isn't a free market.

it can be, but only in the situation where a monopoly is the most efficient way of delivering the services that consumers want.

Given I don't know how the current system operates I don't know what the "solution" to the current lack of rain would be.

The main thing that would need to change is for market entry barriers to be a lot lower - how easy is it to set up a new utility company I wonder?

In most markets a shortage is dealt with by increasing prices, prices rise and people will use water for fewer things until demand matches the supply. That doesn't work unless you pay for the water when you use it - which needs a meter and constant monitoring.

Edited by LJAR
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HOLA4424
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HOLA4425

A monopoly isn't a free market.

Thats the trouble with most govt privatization. You get 'private ownership', but the most important factor of any free market, the price mechanism, isnt allowed to take place, with private bidders simply buying/renting a state monopoly.

That IMO is why most so called 'privatizations' (should really be called something more specific) are an unmitigated disaster.

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