And, just what do you feed this monster?
MONEY, of course. And LOTS of it! Here, in East Tennessee, we have experienced a 20% rate increase, AND an additional surcharge (which allowed our local electric companies to add on ANOTHER rate increase). And, to add insult to injury, our local electric company added 4 extra days onto the readings for the month of December. Never mind that is was Christmas, and that our community has experienced major job layoffs, and that people were struggling to provide a decent Christmas for their children! AND, just recently, the monster goofed and, through their own incompetency, caused an ash spill in Roane County that displaced families (right at the holidays) and created an unbelieve mess of nasty sludge, and God only knows what kind of toxins and harmful bacteria (the fish are dying and have lesions in their gils. . .)! OH, BUT THE MONSTER ISN'T WORRIED! TVA, aka "the monster, CEO, Tom Kilgore, just announced that the cost of cleaning up THEIR mess, and the cost of the lawsuits filed against them by the families who had to endure this major spill, will be PASSED ONTO THE CONSUMER IN THE FORM OF INCREASED ELECTRICAL RATES AND ADDITIONAL SURCHARGES! Mr. Kilgore still got his incentive bonus (for what? more revenue generated?). . . a mere $1 million!!! (Bringing his annual income for 2008 to $2.4 million!!!!!! The chief financial officer, Kimberly Green, had an annual income of 1.3 million, and William McCollum, chief operating officer, made a mere $1.8 million!!! (Not counting expense accounts and perks, folks!)
Now, I can remember my dear old grandfather talking about how they first got electricity in the mountains, where he and my grandmother (and 8 kids, and numerous amounts of grandchildren, and relatives) lived in a little country shack, cooking off an old wood stove, and carrying water in to wash and cook with, EVERYDAY. He would remember TVA bringing electricity to rural areas with much emotion. No doubt it brought much joy and relief to their hard way of life. TVA was a mere mortal, at that point. A good thing. But, greed took over, and the good became bad. We are all slaves of the monster, TVA! Each electric company under the authority of TVA, operate as monopolies, taking from people who are struggling to get by. I don't understand all these people who are scratching their heads and wondering why our economy has gotten so bad! GREED, people. Pure and simple. Businesses charge inflated prices just because they can. And, NOW, it has come to a head. What goes up, must come down.
I refuse to feed the monster any more than I have to. I put on extra clothes, turn the thermostat WAY down, unplug all appliances that are not in use, use flourescent bulbs, and oh, yes, I call my local electric company to find out what day my meter will be read (I have YET to see anyone read my meter), and I PHOTOGRAPH MY METER ON THAT DAY! Needless to say, my electric bills have remained relatively low, because they KNOW I am watching! (I live alone.) But the local news channels have ran reports of families who are paying more for their electricity, beginning with the month of December, 2008, than their MORTGAGES! Assistance isn't available for them because they "make too much", and the best they can get is a 1-week extension to pay, or face having their electricity shut off in temperatures down in the teens! (Never mind that they have children, who have NO dog in the race. . .) EVIL GREED!
It sickens me to think that these CEOs, as well as company managers, enjoy such lavish lifestyles, at the expense of hard-working families who live from paycheck to paycheck. As Miss Daisy would say: "That's vulgar!" I have one word to say to all of them: KARMA!
No comments:
Post a Comment