Re: The Education Function

Michael Lorrey (mike@lorrey.com)
Fri, 18 Dec 1998 10:41:53 -0500

Joe E. Dees wrote:

> Date sent: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 18:13:45 -0500
> From: Michael Lorrey <mike@lorrey.com>
> > > , subsidized irrigation to
> > > corporate agriculture, and cut-rate electricity to corporations.
> >
> > Corporations get lower rates because they use more of it. Its called quantity
> > discounting, just like any other business.
> >
> > > You
> > > don't like welfare to the poor, eh? Then why do you favor it for the
> > > already wealthy (enough to lobby for such special treatment)?
> >
> So you rationalize excuses for corporate welfare. Why? Because
> there are no rational reasons for it.

You obviously don't know jack about business or economics. Customers who buy larger quantities reduce the costs of the supplier because the supplier only has to service one customer for that large quantity, rather than several, or hundreds, or even thousands. In the case of industry using electricity, its because the utility only has to maintain one high power line directly to the plant using the power. It does not need to invest in a huge distribution to deliver that amount of power to thousands of homes, so the business does not need to pay for the marginal cost of that distribution network, just its own single line. Moreover, a large fraction of American industry produces surplus power that they sell back to the utilities. Plants which use a lot of steam will set up cogeneration systems to supply themselves with power off of the steam plant and will sell the surplus to the utility. This dual use saves lots of money for both the business and the utility, which allows the utility to keep YOUR electricity rates down. Now, who is subisdizing who?

Mike Lorrey