Bailed-Out AIG Goons Force Poor to Choose Between Running Water and Food

[notesdev]

What are we getting in return for the bailout? So far, predatory credit card rates, exorbitant bank fees and obscene Wall Street bonuses. But we're being robbed in other, sneakier ways, too. It seems that taxpayers in the poorest, most vulnerable parts of the county are getting plundered by the same institutions they bailed out. One example is AIG's underhanded fleecing of residents of rural Kentucky.

Middlesboro and Clinton are two tiny, impoverished towns in southern Kentucky with a combined population of 12,000. In 2008, Middlesboro's per capita income was $13,189 a year, only a few hundred dollars more than the average worker earned in third-world Mexico. That is if they were lucky to even get a job. Real unemployment hovers somewhere around 30%, and the state is so broke that half the people eligible for unemployment benefits can't receive them. Life may be tough and most people live in poverty, but that doesn't mean they can't be made a little poorer. That's the lesson locals learned after bailed-out insurance villain AIG took over their water utility and instantly raised rates to squeeze an extra $1 million in profits out of its new customers, forcing some to consider choosing between running water and food.

The towns are so rural, their residents have yet to be touched by the Internet revolution. Forget comment sections or forum threads. In Clinton, you have to track down actual hand-written notes that residents filed with city hall to read their complaints about the rate increase. Luckily, city officials were nice enough to scan some of them.

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http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/11.09/goons.html

[pokercat999]

1. The residents should band together and seize the

water utility and what ever else is necessary to keep it in operation.

If the whole town joined together they could do it.

[JDPriestly]

2. All water and electricity utilities should be owned by local goveere rnment.

Los Angeles owns the water and electric company. And that paid off for those of us living in L.A. during the energy crisis. While other areas of our state suffered from the oppression of the greedy Enron-controlled energy market, our company remained in relatively good shape.

So, who paid to build the infrastructure for the water? Wasn't it paid out of public funds? If not, why shouldn't people set up a competing company and get bonds issued to fund the infrastructure and just control their own water supply? I'm saying this in an overly simplistic way, but people have the means to respond to this outrage. They need to work together to do it.