Brain fart and epiphany about the new wealth, blue gold.

[FreeJoe]

17. How expensive do you think water is going to get?

Where I live, there is a $15.35/month charge for water and sewer service. Beyond that, water is $1.38 per thousand gallons if you use 3,000 gallons or less. So let's say that you drink 2 gallons of water per day. You have a 1.6 gallon toilet and you flush it 10 times a day. You also take a 5 minute shower at 2.5 gallons/minute. Finally, you go through another 5 gallons a day washing your hands, brushing your teeth, or turning those on your neighbor's kid. You're at 35.5 gallons per day. In a long month, that works out to 1,100 gallons of water. To be generous, I'll round 1,100 up to 2,000. Your bill is the base of $15.35 + $3.03 or $18.38!

Imagine if they increase the water cost by 10 fold. You still pay the base of $15.35, but now you have to pay $30.30 for the extra water cost. Now your up to $45.65!

OK, I'd personally prefer not to spent the extra $45.65. Still, it's not something I'm going lose a lot of sleep over because someone has concocted a scenario in which it might happen.

I don't know where you live or what the water situation is like. In my world, water is extremely cheap. It matters as a cost only when you use lots of it. That could mean higher food prices for heavily irrigated crops. It could mean higher gas prices because fracking costs go up. It could mean that people with big pools and lots of fancy landscaping get hit hard. I just don't think it will impact me all that much. I have so many concerns ahead of this, that I don't think it would make my list of top 100 problems.