It’s the law
Yesterday, our president Michael D [AKA The Hobbit] signed the Irish Water Services Bill into law.
I will be quite frank and honest when I say I haven't a clue what the detail of the Water Services Bill contains, nor do I know its ramifications for me. I do know however that it is a bad law.
In my book there are two basic types of law. There are the good laws that are there to protect me from the actions of others. I am not too fond of being murdered and therefore I wholeheartedly endorse a law that prevents others from bringing about my demise. Likewise I am quite happy with any law that protects me and my property from injury or theft by others.
Then there are the bad laws. These are the laws that compel me to do something. As the law is supposedly a form of protection and those laws do the opposite, they are by definition bad laws. There are some laws that compel people to do something for the common good but these are the exceptions.
Irish Water is a process to convert an essential resource into a commodity. Up until now water has been provided by our local councils which in turn are funded by taxation. By my understanding, the Irish Water Bill provides for the legal establishment of a single entity [a private company] which will control the entire water system throughout the country. Now a company is a commodity that can be bought and sold, and sold it will be, to the highest bidder.
To date they have spent somewhere in the region of a billion setting the company up. Furthermore they intend borrowing vast sums in the near future to upgrade the entire water system. It has been calculated that to merely break even, Irish Water will have to charge every household in the country a minimum of €1,000 per annum, yet they claim they are going to charge me a mere €130. How does this work? Simple! Set a stupidly low figure as a honey-pot to draw people into signing up for the scam, before lamming the annual charge up through the roof. And we have to pay whatever this private company demands because it's the law.
Can anyone tell me why I shouldn't consider that a bad law?
Can anyone give me one good reason why I should obey it?
Yes, it's a bad law. Politicians are very good at making bad laws. Perhaps it's because so many of them are bad people….?
As to whether or not you should personally abide by it, I'll be cheering on you and every other compatriot who disobeys this law (from the sidelines, because I live in the UK).
Here the water companies are private companies that are heavily regulated by the state as well as the local governments. There is a meter at each home so you are charged by the amount of water you use. The rates are somewhat reasonable. This is only half the story.
We also are charged for sewer usage. The sewer systems are owned by the local governments so charges vary from township to city to borough. Any way you look at it we are charged for water coming and going.
I have no problem with my water being provided by local government. My main objection to this whole business is the privatising of the sector, as it will then be sold off to some foreign conglomerate whose only interest will be in creaming off the profit at great expense to the customer.
yes but inspite of the good laws you mention people get murdered, stuff gets stolen, stuff gets destroyed, laws prevent bugger all, they simply allow vengeanace to be enacted after the fact…
laws do not compel any more than they prevent…you are the only thing that can comply and then only if you choose to.
this law business is non sense.
I have a funny feeling though that if those laws didn't exist there would be a slight increase in murders, theft and destruction?
point is these laws exist and they don't prevent anything. You do not comply with them as you are not a killer, a thief, a destroyer. Anyone who fancies a bit of murdering, stealing or destroying won't comply with them either. The law is moot in the murders. thieves. destroyers decision to cause harm to another. As you eloquently bang on about those in government are above or beyond the law. They seek to cause harm to others. That is the reason why they re where they are and why there ius never a shortage of them.
One messes up and a hundred more are primed and ready to take their place. One employee of the government messes up and there are thousands more ready and willing to take their place and cause harm to their fellows. The dishonesty is these folk carry out their harming in the name of the law hence things like Higgins, fatso Reilly Varadkar Ahern Cowen etc ebb and flow without being the slightest bit inconvenienced by such trivialities as law…they are outside of the law…they create the law you are supposed to but are never asked to comply with…they are out laws…everyone else are in laws.
Couldn't agree more. But you forgot the monopoly position as well.
community chest?