Comment by gramie
12 hours ago
The BBC said (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw4478wnjdpo) that in 30 years, private water and sewerage companies in England and Wales have extracted over 86 billion pounds (~USD $115 billion), while investing very little.
Meanwhile, consumer water rates in those areas increased by as much as 50% in the past year alone.
What is the number? It is a huge red flag if you see an article that cites a profits number without citing a number for capital invested. You literally cannot reach a conclusion either way without comparing the two numbers.
EDIT: The UK water regulator has the capital investment data here: https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/publication/long-term-data-series-o.... What does it say?
> You literally cannot reach a conclusion either way without comparing the two numbers.
You certainly can reach a conclusion, and the GP did.
What you can't do is to compute the rate on return on their investment. But as a user of a water system, why do I care about that?
You cannot reach a conclusion. A conclusion is a rational thing based on comparing realistic alternatives.
As the user of the water system you do have to care about the return on investment. Because the alternative is to have the government take out bonds to pay for that work, and you’d have to pay the interest on those bonds with your tax dollars.
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The UK has an economic and corruption problem, not a water problem. In fact, it's probably got too much of all 3.