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Do you trust your neighbors?
A few months ago, I participated in a brainstorming on the future of water (American Water was paying) where this quandary came up:
How do we get good regulators* who can balance between the long term needs of the community (reliable water service) and short term temptations of the utility (less work, more profits)?
One suggestion struck me as perfectly appropriate: regulators should be drawn from the population of citizens in the same way as jurors, to serve for a year or so (i.e., meeting a few times per month, with compensation).
What I like about this idea is that it guarantees fresh, outside perspectives on the regulatory balancing act. Fresh perspectives will be neither “conventional” nor “captive” to the goals and views of water managers. Rather than being a drawback, I see regulators’ lack of technical experience as a plus, as it will force managers to explain the projects and funding they need in common sense terms.
Is it possible that the regulators will be manipulated or deceived by their permanent staff or the utilities? Yes, but those who understand their ignorance will be wary enough to make sure they have enough information to make an appropriate decision.
Your thoughts?
Bottom Line: The community needs to regulate its water services, so why not have members of the community appointed (by lottery or vote) to carry out that role?
*I discuss the dynamics of this “principal-agent-beneficiary” problem in this paper on international aid, this paper on a human right to water, this chapter on selfish water managers [pdf], and this exploration of customer power and customer service.
Source: http://www.aguanomics.com/2014/07/do-you-trust-your-neighbors.html
Then by your logic, there are people in the states, that have ranches that are bigger than some of the eastern states and they rely totally on IRRAGATION and wells they sunk. So, who do you think is going to control that water? Those clowns go to church, profess to love they neighbor and are committed to their religious beliefs and then rob their neighbors blind, terrorize them by trying to own everything around them. You really think those kinds of people are going to regulate fairly? No….I have lived it over 60 some years and no….do not let anyone regulate anything, accept with an iron packed, legal ramifications against those types of peoples and the fortitude to enforce it.
But, eventually, it will turn republican and they will represent, only those with the most money and the rest of us can eat dirt.
“Do you trust your neighbors”?
Answer:
OF COURSE NOT! I don’t even know WHO THEY ARE!!
And, vice-a-versa!!
How “quaintly” amerikan!!!!!!
