Obey me

[Keith&Co.]

While you're on the subject of everyone is someone else's (non-derogatory) nigger because of imaginary politics, how about the fact that water costs money? Can someone take a moment to break this one down in a few sentences?

We were hiking once in the hills above Sun Valley. Came across a stream, quenched our thirsts.
Followed the stream upriver a ways and found where it wended its way through a field of cattle...

Basic economics taught me that we pay for goods AND we pay for services. Maybe water, as a good, should be free, but I'd be quite happy to pay for the service where someone is making sure that the water in my tap doesn't have cattle spit or manure floating in it.

As for electricity, maybe the trons should be free, but someone's got to sit there and pet the cat long enough to make your computer light up, don't they?

 

[Random Person]

I'm noticing a theme here.

And you seem like a freeloader, who takes the services provided by your government, but complains about being 'forced' to pay.

I have no interest in arguing with you, as I consider it to be unsporting to engage in a battle of wits against an unarmed opponent. But I am eager to call you on your self-contradictory bullshit.

A freeloader could be a person that benefits from the tax dollars the government plucks from me.

The OP is complaining about what churches force him or her to do when in reality they don't force anyone, unlike the government that does under the threat of imprisonment.

You have no interest in arguing because you have flung yourself in an untenable position couple with an unoriginal insult.


Why so afraid of opinions other than yours?

You. You benefit from the tax dollars the government plucks from you. How is that not obvious? The money doesn't disappear down a magical vortex, never to be seen again. It buys stuff. Stuff that you use and rely on every day, services that you want around in case you need them, things that help you in innumerable ways.

Apparently, the government needs to collect taxes using the threat of imprisonment because some people are too ignorant to act in their own long-term self-interest without an explicit threat looming overhead.

Calculating the value proposition from my end tells me the government is falling short.

LOL. It is precicely your inability to make that calculation in an accurate and unbiased way that makes it necessary for the government to make payment of your share mandatory.

You benefit, but like a spoiled child, you imagine that all you have been given was yours by right. So you would refuse to pay your share unless forced. So you are forced.

The result is that you feel bad about something (paying taxes) that you cannot avoid. I, on the other hand, feel good about paying my share. I'm a top rate taxpayer, and damn proud of the fact that I contribute to making my country a better place.

It makes life dramatically better when you feel good about the inevitable.

Sucks to be stupid, I guess.

Why so hostile? The OP complained about obeying religion when nobody has to, yet ignores being forced to obey government.

 

[another1]

Not a bad explanation. I can't justify the price of water with that logic, but yes. Hey why are they saying that California will be dry within a year? The people who own the water should step in and pump some water their way.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Not a bad explanation. I can't justify the price of water with that logic, but yes.

What? There's an upper limit to what you'll pay to make sure that the shit pipe and the drinking pipe are two different pipes? At what point is such an extravagance unjustified?

Hey why are they saying that California will be dry within a year? The people who own the water should step in and pump some water their way.

Wow. The ignorance just has to be intentional at this point.

 

[beero1000]

What? There's an upper limit to what you'll pay to make sure that the shit pipe and the drinking pipe are two different pipes? At what point is such an extravagance unjustified?

Hey why are they saying that California will be dry within a year? The people who own the water should step in and pump some water their way.

Wow. The ignorance just has to be intentional at this point.

Well, his school was really terrible.

 

[another1]

Blame public education for anything ignorant you think I say.
You may have misunderstood me though. I was pointing out that you pay for stuff that magically happens all around you. Paying so much money for it is strange to me. Maybe even ignorant. Intentional ignorance, to me, is digging through your pockets for dirty pieces of paper just to pay for a bottle of water. I think I pad $400 for the right to access Earths water and electricity last month. The right to be warm and hydrated. The right to use a shit pipe. Pretty expensive and pointless. That is intentional ignorance.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Blame public education for anything ignorant you think I say.
You may have misunderstood me though. I was pointing out that you pay for stuff that magically happens all around you.

Then, no, I did not understand. Clean water doesn't magically happen. Sufficient electricity to operate your computer doesn't happen because cats feel friendly.

Paying so much money for it is strange to me. Maybe even ignorant. Intentional ignorance, to me, is digging through your pockets for dirty pieces of paper just to pay for a bottle of water. I think I pad $400 for the right to access Earths water and electricity last month.

No.
No, you did not.

The right to be warm and hydrated. The right to use a shit pipe. Pretty expensive and pointless.

If you think it's pointless to have clean water and a separate pipe for your shit....

 

[another1]

I'll think about that while shuffling through my bills. Last month was over $400 actually. So you're right, I didn't.

Charging each other for water is so stupid, Keith. It is a running joke among the sentient life forms watching us from space. Imagine how stupid we must look to them. Picture me on the toilet mumbling about God, and multiply that by 10,000. That is how bad we look to anything watching us from space or elsewhere.

It does cost money to juice the pipes and whatnot... but not everything we have. The price is even adjusted based on the economy. What the hell is up with that? Water somehow gets wetter when they print more money? I'll never understand this man but thank you for lending a hand.

 

[Keith&Co.]

I'll think about that while shuffling through my bills. Last month was over $400 actually. So you're right, I didn't.

Charging each other for water is so stupid, Keith.

No. But charging you for the infrastructure that gets clean water to your tap is smart. Charging you for the infrastructure that takes your shit away and cleans it is smart.
As you say, there's a lot of water on Earth. it's been here for a long, long time. Basically, every drop of water you drink, someone has pissed in at some point in history. Probably multiple times. Pipes and sewage treatment plants, quality inspectors, plumbers, welders, city planners, none of them are free.

Try living without fresh water for a year, see if $400 for such services seems so ungodly.

 

[beero1000]

$400 to not get cholera seems like a great deal to me.

 

[another1]

Right, Keith. The water is everything. We're literally drinking Jesus in every sip. Hitler's body has returned to water by now, too. So that makes it even more important. It is here, and it is free, dude. You're telling me that the plastic weeble worker men with their shiny red hats need everything I have, just to flush my poop? Just to allow me to assume my permission to consume the most abundant blue stuff on earth?

What's next? The sky is blue... may as well create some imaginary ductwork to charge for air. Why don't they just put a flat tax on the color blue then? Hell that would be so convenient. Cholera free and allowed to flush my poo?

It doesn't add up. The numbers are a little shady, but they're jumbled by a horrifying disease like cholera. I couldn't get cholera even if I made militant a quest of it. But I'm going to DIE of some terrible thing if I stop feeding the pipes though. I think that is the general message I get from the water boss.

 

[Keith&Co.]

It is here, and it is free, dude.

Well, yes, water is free. As long as you're okay with all the things floating in it.

You're telling me that the plastic weeble worker men with their shiny red hats need everything I have, just to flush my poop?

No, that's not what I'm saying. But it would require you actually reading for that to become apparent.

Just to allow me to assume my permission to consume the most abundant blue stuff on earth?

And, again, 'clean water' is not the most abundant blue stuff on Earth, no. And apparently it's not abundant right where you are or you'd sink a well and live off the grid.

It doesn't add up. The numbers are a little shady, but they're jumbled by a horrifying disease like cholera. I couldn't get cholera even if I made militant a quest of it. But I'm going to DIE of some terrible thing if I stop feeding the pipes though. I think that is the general message I get from the water boss.

You might google 'lead water poisoning scandal.' or any 'water contamination scandal.'
Find out just how imaginary those concerns are for access to 'clean water.'

 

[beero1000]

Right, Keith. The water is everything. We're literally drinking Jesus in every sip. Hitler's body has returned to water by now, too. So that makes it even more important. It is here, and it is free, dude. You're telling me that the plastic weeble worker men with their shiny red hats need everything I have, just to flush my poop? Just to allow me to assume my permission to consume the most abundant blue stuff on earth?

What's next? The sky is blue... may as well create some imaginary ductwork to charge for air. Why don't they just put a flat tax on the color blue then? Hell that would be so convenient. Cholera free and allowed to flush my poo?

It doesn't add up. The numbers are a little shady, but they're jumbled by a horrifying disease like cholera. I couldn't get cholera even if I made militant a quest of it. But I'm going to DIE of some terrible thing if I stop feeding the pipes though. I think that is the general message I get from the water boss.

In places without the infrastructure for water sanitation, people die of waterborne diseases all the time. The fact that you think that is hyperbole shows how much you take not getting cholera for granted. It's a literal pandemic, and that's not including dysentery, schistosomiasis, giardia, etc. Sanitation is the single most important invention in the history of humanity and you're complaining about paying a few hundred dollars for it. Seriously?

 

[another1]

If cholera is a pandemic like you say, the water boss fee is pointless. The sanitation "infrastructure" is there for what, again? They're really screwing up, aren't they? It costs 4 hun a month... and they still can't get it right. If sanitation were the most important invention in human history, there would be no sewer fee. The steaming river of poo flowing beneath our cities does not cost 400 a month. The water from these disgusting pipes does not merit paying that price either. I shouldn't pay anything at all. Water and electricity aren't something you should have to sacrifice anything for. That is a vivid truth that I'm sure you agree with in some ways. How could you not?

You say that pumping poop is hard business and I'd agree, but I'd rather get out there and do it myself, if you're going to tell me I have to sacrifice. I'd stand in a ditch moving feces with a canoe paddle, smiling the whole time. Doing that would be way less humiliating than paying people I don't know for something they and could never own.
Do some math beero and give me a figure for one year of adequate world sanitation. The number you come up with will be a fraction of what my local water company makes in one week.

 

[Keith&Co.]

If cholera is a pandemic like you say, the water boss fee is pointless.

Exactly what is it that you think 'pandemic' means?

Maybe if you google 'cholera outbreaks and go to 'images' and see the 'map.' Any of the many maps. What color is it where you are?

The sanitation "infrastructure" is there for what, again? They're really screwing up, aren't they? It costs 4 hun a month... and they still can't get it right. If sanitation were the most important invention in human history, there would be no sewer fee.

I really don't get how that follows...

If sanitation were the most important invention in history, AND public education was worth a shit no pun intended, then there would be no bitching about sewer fees...

The steaming river of poo flowing beneath our cities does not cost 400 a month. The water from these disgusting pipes does not merit paying that price either.

Are you on the city council in Flint?

I shouldn't pay anything at all. Water and electricity aren't something you should have to sacrifice anything for. That is a vivid truth that I'm sure you agree with in some ways. How could you not?

Because you seem to be whining a lot more than establishing a valid truth.

 

[another1]

Maybe if you google 'cholera outbreaks...

No thank you. That sounds unhealthy.

Are you on the city council in Flint?

No, I'm just someone who pays $400 a month for the right to take a poop.

you seem to be whining a lot more than establishing a valid truth

Obeying the man starts with the water. Valid truth for you there. Can't imagine I would whine on an atheist board. Doesn't sound like something I'd do.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Maybe if you google 'cholera outbreaks...

No thank you. That sounds unhealthy.

How could it possibly be unhealthy? I suppose, maybe, you might have a brush with knowledge.

No, I'm just someone who pays $400 a month for the right to take a poop.

No, you do not. You can poop in your yard if you want, or poop into Mason jars to keep in your basement. At least until the neighbors begin to worry that you're going to put them at risk for something...

But if you poop in your ditch and spend the day paddling it downstream, where are you going to get your drinking water?

you seem to be whining a lot more than establishing a valid truth

Obeying the man starts with the water. Valid truth for you there. Can't imagine I would whine on an atheist board. Doesn't sound like something I'd do.

It's the only thing you do, a1.

 

[another1]

But if you poop in your ditch and spend the day paddling it downstream, where are you going to get your drinking water?

Well, it wouldn't be my poop ditch. We all poop. We could figure something out, without spending half the money we earn from shoveling rich poop across town where the water bosses live.

How could it possibly be unhealthy?

Googling lowers intelligence. Asking a computer what it thinks that some other person (who is probably wrong) thinks you that you should think about what you probably already know, and if don't, probably don't need to... I can feel my brain cells dying just thinking about it. I'm not trying to come off as a saint though. I'm virtuous in no way. I am addicted to social media and I know I have a problem there. But we can only help ourselves. Past interventions held in social media have failed me. I can bypass Google to get there, so that isn't relevant.

On whining, that is all anybody does. Making whining look like a debate is an art I haven't picked up on. It is all the same thing, but whatever. Back to something that matters - you're still paying to hydrate yourself. Words are just words but water costs money. Maybe if I type it again, the reality will go away. Water costs money. Nope, we're still idiots paying for water. When someone says water should be free, you should say yea I agree. How had is it to agree with something like that?

 

[Keith&Co.]

But if you poop in your ditch and spend the day paddling it downstream, where are you going to get your drinking water?

Well, it wouldn't be my poop ditch. We all poop. We could figure something out, without spending half the money we earn from shoveling rich poop across town where the water bosses live.

Starting down the road of a cooperative infrastructure. You'll end up right back where you are before you know it.

How could it possibly be unhealthy?

Googling lowers intelligence.

Ah.
Okay, if you're going to be superstitious about it, never mind.

 

[another1]

Starting down the road of a cooperative infrastructure. You'll end up right back where you are before you know it.

You're so totally right though. My own poo ditch makes more sense. Seriously though, if you end up in the same place, complain again?

I'm not superstitious about Google, Keith. I know it may have seemed that way. In my defense, I do use Google a few times a week, and I bravely use gmail all the time. I don't kiss the Crucifix around my neck and ask God to protect me when I log on.
I just have the notion that search engines will make us intellectually devolve. That is a pretty reasonable thing to think.