anonymous wrote:

On Thu, 02 Oct 2003 11:09:14 -0400, Vito said:

How that equates to charging non-users instead of users escapes me.

Your frame of reference is too narrow. What Peggy was talking about was
charging boats that use electricity at cost. But one cost of any business is
profit.

Thlatter is simply not true. Profit is not a business expense it's an
investment incentive. There were (and still are) many needed services
that simply do not offer enough profit potential to interest investors,
so folks needing a service(s) formed their own nonprofit companies to
provide it. Their need replaced profit as an incentive for them to
invest. This proved so popular that the Government defined a special
class of nonprofit corporation - the co-op - with standardized rules.
Co-ops are simply non-profit corp.s operating under rules set for
Government convenience. The 1000s of corporations operating sans profit
disprove that "one cost of any business is profit".

Marinas must offer something to attract customers. Collecting for those
services IS a business cost but how the owner does that is his
prerogative. Also, the prices he charges are based on customer demand,
NOT his cost of providing service. It costs less to build and maintain
slips adjacent to shore yet such slips rent for more than those out near
the end of an expensive pier. The marina I use doesn't charge for
electricity or water per se, it is included in slip fees. Ditto every
motel I ever stayed in. Some use more than their neighbors but in the
owner's experience that difference is too negligible to warrant the cost
of seperate collection, not to mention the cost of 100s of meters, one
at each slip, which must ultimately be passed on to his customers as
higher prices; making his marina less attractive. If I'm so worried
about subsidizing my neighbor's electricity that I'd prefer to pay
higher rent in a place with meters, then I can and should move to one.
After all, voting with my $$$ is capitalism in action, right?

If the owner of Ms Peggy's marina wants to make a profit on electricity
he can; he just cannot buy it from a co-op first. All he needs is his
own small reactor and ..... (c: