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Business, Economics, and Taxes 2: That's Why We Fight to Take the Means Back

Irony is Microshaft telling people to celebrate Earth Day by using the A.I. image creator.

Yes, nothing says "conservation" quite like burning through enough energy to power a small town and consuming a week's supply of drinking water!
 
Well, I'm getting the impression that even entertainers who say they are progressive that it's BS. I'm a member of a band's fan club, which should get me tickets to shows. And I've been a member since 1999. But I recently applied to get tickets for a show and the lottery denied me- but the venue is selling tickets via ticketslavemaster. Meaning the prices are 2-4x the cost I should have gotten them. And the show still isn't sold out.

Let alone the club prices are really high. Like Tony award winning popular orchestra seat really high.

I love the bad. But for the money, I'd rather go see multiple plays.

BTW, this progressive band leader regularly posts videos railing on the moron and the billionaire war lords. So I'm not sure if he really means it.
 
MichVandal said:
Well, I'm getting the impression that even entertainers who say they are progressive that it's BS. I'm a member of a band's fan club, which should get me tickets to shows. And I've been a member since 1999. But I recently applied to get tickets for a show and the lottery denied me- but the venue is selling tickets via ticketslavemaster. Meaning the prices are 2-4x the cost I should have gotten them. And the show still isn't sold out.

Let alone the club prices are really high. Like Tony award winning popular orchestra seat really high.

I love the bad. But for the money, I'd rather go see multiple plays.

BTW, this progressive band leader regularly posts videos railing on the moron and the billionaire war lords. So I'm not sure if he really means it.
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Just go ahead and tell us please.

I am assuming Foo Fighters.
 
MichVandal said:
Well, I'm getting the impression that even entertainers who say they are progressive that it's BS. I'm a member of a band's fan club, which should get me tickets to shows. And I've been a member since 1999. But I recently applied to get tickets for a show and the lottery denied me- but the venue is selling tickets via ticketslavemaster. Meaning the prices are 2-4x the cost I should have gotten them. And the show still isn't sold out.

Let alone the club prices are really high. Like Tony award winning popular orchestra seat really high.

I love the bad. But for the money, I'd rather go see multiple plays.

BTW, this progressive band leader regularly posts videos railing on the moron and the billionaire war lords. So I'm not sure if he really means it.
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That's modern ticketing...

The band probably can only offer up 20-30% of the venue at most to their fan club. Unfortunately a large chunk of tickets are also contractually obligated to go to other outlets as well (Think VISA presale, season ticket holders for the team(s) if it's a sports venue, building sponsors, tickets held back for the general public, etc.).

It's a VERY dirty and convoluted process if you really want to get into it.
 
RaceBoarder said:
That's modern ticketing...

The band probably can only offer up 20-30% of the venue at most to their fan club. Unfortunately a large chunk of tickets are also contractually obligated to go to other outlets as well (Think VISA presale, season ticket holders for the team(s) if it's a sports venue, building sponsors, tickets held back for the general public, etc.).

It's a VERY dirty and convoluted process if you really want to get into it.
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I've been to some concerts where it was clear that the best seats in the venue were given to people who had NO idea who they were seeing, and those of us way behind them were singing and dancing to every song. Kind of disgusted me.

But in past concerts, it really seemed that it was a LOT more members who got tickets. I actually joined because the 2nd concert I went to, there were hardly any tickets available to normal people (this was before internet sales).

It's not a sports venue, it's a outdoor concert venue.

I'll make a parallel complaint about the cost of buying music- CD's used to be more expensive than tapes because of tech. Then they weren't, but the price stayed 50% higher. Now, remove the actual hard piece of media that a person holds in their hands, and the price is still really high. The exact same as if I asked them to send me a CD. If I'm paying $20 for the music files or $20 for the CD, I'll take the CD all day long. For one thing, I have the CD in my hands and can do whatever I want, and second- it clearly cuts into the profits since they have to pay to buy the media, burn it, pack it, and ship it. Which helps a lot more people out in the long run.
 
Power companies don't like the fact that so many of us have put solar panels on our roof and are eating into their profits by stealing our energy from the Sun. Some of us are even selling the excess back to the power companies so our monthly bills have dropped by >$100 to $10-30. Now they have found a way to fight back. The minimum charge. Like most things that are bad, this is starting in Florida. Duke Energy is charging (for now) a $30 minimum, so if your bill is only $15, they'll add a mysterious $15 charge for...reasons. FLP is charging $35. Other companies around the country are exploring the option of doing this (translation: They are definitely doing it, just trying to figure out how to best justify it).

And once the power companies do it, expect other industries to follow suit. "You bought no-name brand food stuffs, so your weekly bill is only $85. But we need everyone to fund the grocery infrastructure equally, so our minimum charge is $100."
 
I actually do not have a problem with a minimum charge as long as it's reasonable. Where I diverge is the profit motive being the end all be all of everything. What I have a problem with is privatizing the profits and socializing the losses. Let's get rid of that in all of our businesses.
 
ticapnews said:
Power companies don't like the fact that so many of us have put solar panels on our roof and are eating into their profits by stealing our energy from the Sun. Some of us are even selling the excess back to the power companies so our monthly bills have dropped by >$100 to $10-30. Now they have found a way to fight back. The minimum charge. Like most things that are bad, this is starting in Florida. Duke Energy is charging (for now) a $30 minimum, so if your bill is only $15, they'll add a mysterious $15 charge for...reasons. FLP is charging $35. Other companies around the country are exploring the option of doing this (translation: They are definitely doing it, just trying to figure out how to best justify it).

And once the power companies do it, expect other industries to follow suit. "You bought no-name brand food stuffs, so your weekly bill is only $85. But we need everyone to fund the grocery infrastructure equally, so our minimum charge is $100."
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Every utility bill has two primary components: a usage charge and a customer charge. The customer charge is the flat monthly fee because the infrastructure to serve you is there whether you use a lot of it or a little of it. It's there even if you are selling solar energy back to the grid. The usage charge, as the name implies, will vary based on usage (whether therms of gas, kWh of electricity, gallons of water, etc.). So higher users will pay more (though depending on the industry and utility, potentially at declining rates).

In a utility rate case before a state's PUC, the main fight is almost always over 2 things: how much should the increase in rates be, and how should rates be allocated. Especially for electricity, the latter is often the more significant fight, not only in terms of interclass allocations (residential vs. commercial vs. industrial), but also customer charge vs. usage charge. Industrial users support higher flat fees for all classes, because that results in lower usage fees, and they use a ton. Residential groups typically want higher usage charges and lower customer charges, because that shifts more of the overall burden to the commercial and industrial classes.

If I had to guess, most customer charges for residential customers are already in the $20-30/mo. range. So if Duke was formerly below that, then it's not surprising it's increased.

ETA: Duke's minimum charge has been in place for nearly a decade...so not new?
 
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ScoobyDoo said:
I actually do not have a problem with a minimum charge as long as it's reasonable. Where I diverge is the profit motive being the end all be all of everything. What I have a problem with is privatizing the profits and socializing the losses. Let's get rid of that in all of our businesses.
Click to expand...
What legitimate purpose does a power company have to charge a minimum fee other than "We want money and you still have some."? If they want money so badly, stop signing sweetheart deals with Amazon, Microsoft etc and charge them for the power they use, not Ma and Pa Kettle.
 
Wars over! Oil futures are down!


Even if its true, and the Strait resumes pre-war traffic volumes, there's the little hiccup this administration is happily glossing over: the lag and slack in the supply chain.

Europe is six weeks from jet fuel shortages. Flights to other potential shortage locations like Australia, Phillipines, and other regions have been reduced not out of fear of Europe's jet fuel shortage, but shortages in those regions which would prevent flights from returning.

CNBC had a talking head on this morning to discuss the shortages in Euorpe: Refining capability and production has been reducing for the last decade in Europe, so that combined with the reduced strait traffic could lead to a two *year* belt tightening by airlines for jet fuel. Similar to the slowdown then burst of demand from COVID.

Yet another selfish move by this administration with no foresight on global impacts. Which will also go unpunished by this administration.
 
ticapnews said:
What legitimate purpose does a power company have to charge a minimum fee other than "We want money and you still have some."? If they want money so badly, stop signing sweetheart deals with Amazon, Microsoft etc and charge them for the power they use, not Ma and Pa Kettle.
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I agree 100%. They need to fix A, before charging B. I just do not have a problem with B, if A is already fixed.
 
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