StrangeSox

Do they compare it to people who pay traditionally but can monitor their usage in the same way and get a "running bill" amount? I'd use that for sure.

Lower-income people might not have regular internet access, cellphones or smartphones (to reactivate if it goes out). Like I said I don't see anything wrong or malicious about it. It's not an option I'd take but maybe it is advantageous for some.

Yeah, better-said. They're not being delayed but being discarded in pursuit of something else.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 2, 2013 -> 09:44 AM) Yeah, if you have bad credit or a history of not paying your bill... I think in the southwest and the south, where there is a lot of menial labor and a cash economy, as well as big swings in utility bills because of the oppressive summer heat and the mild winter temps, some lower income folks struggle with it. I know gas companies allow customers around Chicago to spread out costs over the year instead of having huge bills in the winter and low bills in the summer. Do the electric companies not offer those types of plans?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 2, 2013 -> 09:46 AM) All right...well let me put it this way, the only thing I have a problem with is the actual turning the power off if that's done in an inappropriate way...because 90% of the time that'll go fine and then occasionally you'll kill someone. The "occasionally killing someone from heatstroke/freezing" is the part that the utility pulling the plug on people would need to proactively avoid. How they do that is up to them, but overall, I'm very much a fan of smart meters and wider deployment of them. FWIW this has happened before with gas companies and turning off people's heat around here. IIRC four or five years ago a 90+ year old man froze to death in Indiana because his gas was turned off after several months of non-payment.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ May 2, 2013 -> 09:47 AM) Speaking of electricity, apparently I've been chosen to participate in an "electric aggregation" program, whatever the hell that means. The Village I live in has signed a one year deal with another electric company whose rates are approx. 20% less than ComEd. I also have the option to pay slightly more and the company will buy Renewable Energy Certificates to cover 100% of my electricity usage. I don't really understand how or why the Village or the electric company are doing this. A few years ago Illinois changed the rules and allowed multiple electricity resellers to come in instead of everyone having to buy from ComEd. Woodridge has done something similar. The cities/towns/villages are acting like single-payers to get a better rate through volume. Electricity is just another utility service like water or garbage collection.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 2, 2013 -> 09:30 AM) I really don't either, unless you are cash-strapped...apparently there are a lot of people that pay their bill in cash and struggle to pay their bill...which means it then gets disconnected. In order to get it re-connected, they have to pay a pretty sizable deposit. This allows them to have more control over the entire process. However, electricity is not like cell phone minutes. It's pretty much a necessity in modern industrial society. I don't think the majority of people are going to want to deal with the potential of having their electricity turned off because they ran out of kilowatt hours...even though service can be returned in minutes by putting more money in your "account." But the programs have gotten a lot of positive feedback in other areas. I don't see any problem with it being an option, I just don't understand why someone would take it. Is it offered at a discount, like pre-paying for a rental car is? Is there any buffer or warning, or do you just hit your quota and bam--the lights shut off?

I've seen it said that a lot of research careers just won't start now because of the sequester. In related news, we had the weakest new-jobs month in over seven months. Yeah! Sequester! The fed is explicitly calling the current fiscal policy wrong. Even AEI is coming out and saying further cuts are stupid because we've already started to reduce the deficit by growing out of it (hey! some people have been saying this for years!)

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 1, 2013 -> 10:09 PM) How's that tinfoil hat fitting? Tinfoil hat? Huh? i just meant that the power company is going to receive the money upfront, probably a 60 day swing between pre-pay and post-pay Billing cycles. I don't really see the benefits of it from the consumer side.

...how am i going to pay for more without electricity to get on the internet? What's the benefit for the consumer? Seems massively in favor of the power companies.

Can't understand why they are appealing this http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog...-plan-b-ruling/

You are correct, but i have seen a tiny transaction tax proposed as a way to end it

People can have racist beliefs and be friends with black people. You're actually trying to argue that "i have blah friends"is a legitimate defense against a charge of racism. Same applies to lgbt people.

"I'm not racist, I've got a black friend!" isn't actually a legitimate defense I don't really care to hear Broussard's or any other sports commentator's theological views on other peoples' alleged sins. I think Broussard's views are bigoted and that having gay friends does not magically change that.

It's only a problem for bigots trying to cherry-pick religious texts to justify their bigotry though

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 1, 2013 -> 04:38 PM) More prop shops than investment banks. For investment banks it is a piece of the puzzle. Either way, it seems like it's a negative for most people, including your typical retirement-type or "buy and hold" investors, and good only for people who can buy access.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 1, 2013 -> 04:37 PM) No person can. Only trading firms can. As long as any trading firm can, it is perfectly legal because equal opportunity is there. Ok, I've not asked if it's legal or not. Plenty of shady things are legal and I assumed this was as well. I was asking if there's any greater benefit to it, or if it's just rent-seeking and maybe should be made illegal (or a tiny transaction tax applied, making it unprofitable to make so many trades for fractions of pennies).

I don't really want to hear Bernstein having theological debates, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers'_Day Celebrated in dozens of countries going back the 1880's. It started as a commemoration of the Haymarket affair in Chicago, a pro-labor/anarchist protest for 8-hour working days and other labor rights that turned deadly. It's widely believed that the suspects were railroaded and not given anything close to a fair trial; this was a period in this country when it was common for police and "private detective agencies" to violently break strikes and worker organization efforts. Unfortunately, this still happens in many developing countries, and there's plenty of other forms of intimidation in the US against organizing. edit: in the US, because it's not an official holiday, it's mainly celebrated by leftists. In many European countries, it's the equivalent (and really original version) of our Labor Day.

Yeah, male athletes are seen as the peak of masculinity, so coming out as gay (which is usually stereotyped as effeminate/sissy) is a contradiction to that image. Female athletes are frequently admired for their looks and femininity, and being a lesbian isn't really a contradiction to that. Buzzfeed put together this graphic about all of the female pro athletes that have come out

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ May 1, 2013 -> 03:51 PM) Why are people protesting May 1st? Do they think it comes too early--that April should have 31 days? It's May Day, the internationally celebrated Labor Day, pretty big in Europe. The US made ours in September to make sure we didn't associate it with those dirty commies.

QUOTE (iamshack @ May 1, 2013 -> 02:38 PM) Well, the folks that are losing out are the trading firms that still try to utilize the old school methods. I don't know that either one is necessarily right or wrong...I just know things have changed dramatically in that industry. Wouldn't this amount to everybody engaged in traditional investing, e.g. our 401k's and IRA's? Maybe I don't understand it fully, but my understanding is that HFT is not a part of your traditional "investing" trading, it's something that investment banks do solely for their own profits.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 1, 2013 -> 02:12 PM) Which anyone can do. Most people can't get server space in the NYSE.

For this to be profitable (and it is, massively), somebody is losing out. I don't know how much this actually applies to any customer-driven trades. My understanding is that it's entirely algorithms, which is why we such things as the still-unexplained flash crash or the "white house bombing" crash the other week.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 1, 2013 -> 01:32 PM) So does any Goldman customer get that advantage? No idea. Disagree strongly. Rent-seeking is still rent-seeking, even if its going to the limited customer pool of GS and not a handful of traders. Those rents are still being extracted from somewhere, someone else is paying them (it's anyone who trades without access to the HFT).