But even if the bubble hadn’t burst, I think my imperfect analogy does illustrate how conservation—and therefore, reduced demand—alone would not have led to lower prices, as little in the expenses could be reduced. (As it happened, jobs had to be slashed to meet the reduced revenue, but I don’t think that’s an approach Obama wants to promote.)

For the same dollars, they could have enjoyed longer showers, while propping up the waterworks by paying the lower rates for more water.

The above is an example of a city utility being unable to lay off manpower and reduce man-hours in the face of reduced expansion. It’s a water-works “bubble”, but it is a brilliant microcosm of our government’s economic delusion that income is not based on production but merely on historical return.

“It’s there, it’ll be there tomorrow because the base is ever-expanding.” We’ve proven that mindset wrong with shrinking population, production, growth, and innovation.

Mt. Pleasant is a great little community,for all that.