WEBVTT - The City Sold Your Water feat. Prop 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:07.000 A media We's so, y'all's your favorite cousin. 0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:09.920 I just came over. You feel me, y'all don't have. 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:12.880 No cousins that just kind of pop up, just be 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:15.560 at the house like like a ninety sitcom where you 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:17.520 don't knock on the door, you just be walking in. 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:22.200 That wasn't my life, mainly because most of the cousins 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:24.200 on my mother's side lived on the other side of 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:27.240 the country, and then my cousin's on my father's side, 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:30.840 since we lived in gang infested areas, you didn't just 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:35.479 pop up. That was just not the safest thing to do. 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:39.559 But I'm doing that at your house. And you know 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:42.479 what happens when you have cousins come over. Well, now, 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:44.800 a small percentage of y'all are black, but a lot 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:48.199 of percentages y'all grew up poor, which means that you 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:49.360 got whoopings just. 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:49.840 Like we did. 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:53.040 So you know, usually when your cousin comes over, somebody's 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:55.840 getting We all somebody getting in trouble, and it's usually 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:58.240 you because you're supposed to know better. I never got 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:05.600 more spankings then when my cousins came over, because we 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:08.679 would just get into stuff. And then since I'm the 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:10.959 one that lived there, and I was cutting up in 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:11.800 front of company. 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:13.639 I ended up getting into most trouble. 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.440 Anyway, this isn't where I'm working out trauma, although it 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:18.920 is called it can happen here podcasts, So I feel 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:22.000 like we all collectively working out trauma of being Americans. 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:25.800 And lastly, on the rambling preamble, I got a dog. Now, well, 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:29.839 my daughter got a dog. And to all the parents 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:32.840 that listen, you know when your child gets a pet, 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:37.880 who's pet that actually is? So I find myself doing 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:41.640 a lot more chores than I signed up for. But 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:44.640 it's a pug, and it keeps trying to eat the 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:45.319 cat's food. 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:49.560 Therefore it's got liquid doodoo. And I'm not a fan 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:49.840 of that. 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:54.360 And since I get to work in my pajamas because 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:59.160 I'm just recording podcasts and rap music back here, seems 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:01.800 to fall on me to scoop up this liquid doodoo. 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:05.200 But that's only when she eats the cat's food. Stupid dog, 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:06.120 eat your own food. 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.560 Anyway, I'm here to talk about something that you can 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:13.200 do nothing about. All right, y'all ready here we go, 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:16.639 a brother like me who bleeds Los Angeles. You cut 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:20.120 me open and Pacific Ocean salt water comes out. You 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:24.640 poke my lungs and smog pours out of me. I 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:29.040 could work for the Tourist Department of Los Angeles. I 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:34.800 love this city at an unhealthy level. There are things 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:40.239 about this place that is absolute trash. Don't get me wrong, 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:45.840 there is a lot wrong with this city. With this place, 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:50.560 the ground shakes up under us. We've been such a 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:54.800 horrible steward as to how to take care of this land. 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:56.920 I'm gonna include myself, even though I am not the 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:02.119 invasive colonizer. But there are really only nine native trees 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:07.919 to California, two of which are not the palm tree 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:13.240 or the eucalyptus. The plants that are here naturally are 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:15.760 drought resistant and fire resistant. 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:17.000 They don't burn that easy. 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:20.720 The ones that burn up real quick are the sycamores 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:21.600 and the palm trees. 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:25.200 And if you may have noticed, Los Angeles hit a 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:30.280 bit of a dry spell recently and had quite the disaster. 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:35.040 Now, I'm slowly backing that thing up into what we're 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:37.160 gonna talk about right now, which you should probably know 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:40.520 if you have already read the show title when you 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:44.200 clicked play. But I'm gonna back that thing up into it. 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:51.120 California catches fire every year in some location. Now, my mother, 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:55.920 you know, Mama prop she worked thirty years for the 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:59.720 La County Fire Department, you know, in the city of Westkovina. 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:04.480 Because almost six two sixer and I have vivid. 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:08.080 Memories of the different firemen, fire chiefs. I think I 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:11.480 talked about this in the La on Fire episode. Block 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:15.280 is literally Hot on the Hood politics show, which hopefully 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:18.000 you guys are supporting and listening to also. 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:20.160 But even my boy Chris. 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.520 Who's you know, firefighter, you know, been fighting the fires 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:27.040 out here. Everybody knew that one day this day would 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:33.560 come and that let's just say, all of the bureaucratic 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:36.320 failures had not happened. If the water was as full 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:42.080 as possible, the fire hydrants were fine, if everything was 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:45.840 the budget, if everything was done perfectly, this was going 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:46.320 to happen. 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.839 This day was going to come. That it's a perfect storm. 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:55.120 We were had a specific type of drought, lack of rain, 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:58.760 the Santa Ana winds, and then a fire sparking, and 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:03.200 that fire sparking in a densely populated urban area. It 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:07.480 was every fireman I knew was like, yeah, one day 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:10.400 it's gonna happen. And like I said in the last episode, yeah, 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:13.760 like you know, we could find ourselves a time machine 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:16.320 and practice the indigenous practices. 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:17.120 Oh. 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:20.599 Actually, as a small little beacon alike, there's an area 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:24.800 Alta Dina that was actually given back to the Tongla 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:28.320 tribe many years back. There was a first like actual 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:32.279 land back given back to the tribe and they started 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:34.240 taking care of the land the way that their elders 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:36.839 and ancestors did. And guess what, that area didn't burn 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:41.640 anyway in the midst of this disaster that we were 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:48.880 having a desperate, desperate man who I completely understand is desperation. 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:53.920 On Tuesday night on January seventh, while the fires were 0:05:53.960 --> 0:06:00.440 just rumbling through the palisades, a man named Keith Posserman, 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:03.039 who's the co founder of a real estate investment firm, 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:07.279 desperately took to Twitter and said, does anyone have access 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:11.360 to private firefighters to protect our home? Need to act 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:17.360 fast here all neighbors houses burning, will pay any amount. 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:23.719 There was another click of Rick Caruso, who almost in 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:28.880 a multiverse situation, is our mayor, a billionaire developer who 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:35.240 owns the grove on the West Side. Just that if 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:38.400 you ever watched TMZ, whenever somebody's walking out of a place, 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:42.479 it's probably at the grove and was a you know, 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:47.719 real estate magnate. Anyway, there are videos of him driving 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:51.279 through an area that he had with his private security 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:55.159 and private firefighters where it's smoke billowing all around the place, 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:59.520 but his situation was fine. Why because he had private firefighters. 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:03.360 They shaved this shopping center, but he tried to unsuccessfully 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:07.840 save nearby homes as well, which reminded everybody about the 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:12.600 time that Kanye and Kim tweeted about their house being 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.120 saved by firefighters. 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:18.400 And which made people be like, wait a minute, you 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:21.840 can buy a fire department, man, What the hell is this? 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:28.600 What type of shit? Man? What we over here arguing 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:31.560 over firefidrants. 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:34.800 And tanks running low and somebody just paid them where 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:38.960 they get the water from? How the hell you can 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.960 just Oh my god, what the hell. 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:47.120 Water you using, nigga, that's not your water? And what 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:50.200 you gonna do? Are you gonna help out the neighbors? 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:53.920 Okay, so if I buy fire department five apartment, show 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.320 up from my house, but the neighbor's house is burned, 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:59.360 you just gonna leave a neighbors house, you gonna tell 0:07:59.400 --> 0:07:59.800 them to. 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:03.040 Call the city's fire department. What the hell is happening? 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:06.160 How does this shit work? Is there any other way 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:09.800 rich people can be evil? What is happening right now? 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:13.440 Which is basically what happened and how most of the 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:19.040 regulars felt. So this episode is not just about private 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:23.760 fire departments, because that would not be a very interesting 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:28.760 full episode. It's about the question that private fire departments 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:31.880 bring up, which is like nigga, whose water is that? 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:35.720 Wait a minute, who owns the water? Is the water 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:36.440 private too? 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.400 And if the water's private too, what else of my 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:42.079 utilities are private? And this is what I mean by 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:43.760 there is nothing you can do about it. 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:44.360 Now. 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:48.440 If there is any of you that are built like 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:54.040 Robert and Magpie, then maybe you ain't gotta worry about this. 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:58.240 Maybe you could dig your own well and find the groundwater. However, 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:01.200 there are things called water land rights, which I will 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:02.160 talk about into this. 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:03.559 So even if. 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:08.320 You move off the grid to live on a mountain, 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:12.320 you find somewhere in the backwoods, you know fou Aca 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.600 is away from Magpie wherever the hell Magpie live, and 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:18.640 you dig to find some water, somebody owned that water. 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:22.679 It already happened here, y'all. Let's go all right, this 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:24.480 may or may not be a shock to y'all. I 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:27.960 know in the first the block is literally hot episode 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:31.000 I did way way, way way back when I first 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:33.199 joined when kuols On Media first launch, when I first 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:37.520 joined the team, my first episodes. It was one of 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:39.480 those things where it's like the thought has probably never 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:42.480 crossed your mind, and and some of it's like sitting 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:45.520 I'm talking to y'all who pay bills. Some of this 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.720 stuff is sitting right up under your nose, Like Southern California. 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.880 Edison is one of our power companies. But then there's 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:56.280 PG and E. This isn't the city of Los Angeles 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:59.200 providing this, That's a company. In the same way that 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:02.520 your internet from a company. What makes you think your 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:04.920 power don't come from a company. And if your power 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:07.600 come from a company and an internet come from a company, 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:10.880 why wouldn't your water come from a company? I like, well, 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:13.000 I don't know what would make you think that that's 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:17.720 just a city municipality? Well, because duh, because water fall 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:22.880 from the sky. What the shit? So what I'm paying 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:24.800 for you to pump it through the through the dog 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:27.480 on pipes. For me, I understand that that's a service, 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:32.800 But what the hell of my taxes for you somebody 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:35.000 like I don't know if you noticed, you can own 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:37.600 the rain. So the water that fell inside the lake, 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:41.800 somebody bought the lake. This is the episode that I'm 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:44.960 going to tell y'all. Right now, so your utilities, most 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:48.679 likely your city has sold your water and your sewage 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:51.600 processing to a private company. And the bills that you're 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:56.040 paying your water bill is not going to the city 0:10:56.440 --> 0:11:00.760 for the service you are receiving. It is paying the 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:06.200 company back the money that the company paid your city. 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:07.400 To get this gig. 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:09.760 Let me back up here first, let me cover the 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:14.240 private fire departments. Now here's the thing. Private fire departments 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:19.680 usually are hired by insurance companies. So what they do 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:21.800 a lot of time is like prevention. They'll come in 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:25.679 here and you know, clear out shrub, make sure that 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:28.440 your house is not like set up for failure. 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:29.000 You know. 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:33.320 In California, I mean, people always talk about our strict 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:36.280 laws and building codes and it's like, well, nigga, do 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:39.920 you see why every time you got a bureaucratic law, 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:44.520 like there might be a historical evidence as to why 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:49.240 we need that, one of which is my nigga. 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:50.840 California ain't got a lot of water. 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.320 So if you gonna build a house, you can't just 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:58.120 have dry shrubbery up around your house. Why because you 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:02.800 just basically put a some matches just around your house. 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:07.920 So yes, bam, like that's why you can't do that. 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:10.120 Why you not allowed to have a lot of trash 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:11.040 in your house? Nigga? 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:13.520 What I mean, what the hell you think? Because this 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:18.480 shit'll catch on fire. So these private companies, private fire 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:21.920 companies usually come through and again they hire body insurance 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:25.880 companies normally to come and clear shrubbery, make sure that 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:30.560 your lint, your dryer is uh cleared out, make sure 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:33.520 your HVAC is good. And usually they got their own 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:35.600 little tank, right, So they come in with their own 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:37.880 little tank of water that's stay private water that basically 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:39.080 they bring in their bottle water. 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:40.320 You know what I'm saying. Why the rest of us 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:41.040 is using. 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:44.000 Tap right, But eventually that little tank go run out, 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:45.959 you feel me, And then at that point you got 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:49.240 to tap into the fire hydrant. Right now, What most 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:51.439 of these companies will say is like the guys were 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:55.560 not monsters, dude, Like, if the neighborhood is on fire, 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.440 of course we're going to help. What are you, like, 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:02.000 what are you talking about? Which I truly believe for 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:05.679 this reason. If I'm paying to protect this house, but 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.800 the neighbor's house is on fire, that probably means that 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:10.960 the neighbor's house is going to cause my house to 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:13.280 catch on fire. So of course it would be in 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:16.960 my best interest to help put that one out. According 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:20.280 to the New York Times, they reported that, yeah, good, 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:23.280 forty five percent of all firefighters working in the United 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:28.200 States today are employed privately. Right now, a lot of 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:31.959 those are like wildlife suppression. Now, there's such thing as 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:35.199 called the National Wildlife Suppression Association, which represents more than 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:38.640 like three hundred private firefighting groups, and a lot of 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:43.720 them work more as like government contractors, right, as far 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:48.040 as like again supplement for like wildfires, right and like 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:52.920 I said, the others are hired by private companies. 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:53.320 Yo, and peak. 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:57.120 This like a little two person private firefighting crew with 0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:59.560 a small vehicle, I mean it could cost like three 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:04.240 granded day. Like a large crew of like twenty firefighters 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:08.320 and four trucks can run ten thousand dollars a day. 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:11.600 This is according to Brian Weelock, the vice president of 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:15.960 the Gray Back Forestry. It's a private firefighting company in Oregon. 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:18.000 But most of the time, like I said, these people 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:22.120 don't really work directly with homeowners. But that's not what's 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.720 the interesting part of this story to me. The interesting 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:28.160 part of this story to me is the reality of 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:42.240 the utilities that we live in. Now, let me go 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:44.680 ahead and run off some statistics to you. I just 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:47.960 want to go ahead and add to the dystopia that 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:50.720 we live in because we need to say, we need 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:52.200 to change the name of this show too. 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:53.360 It has happened here. 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:58.920 I'm gonna link all this data to. 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:01.280 The show notes. Now you're ready for this. 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:07.840 Water and wastewater service privatization follows broader trends. More than 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:14.440 forty percent of drinking water systems nationwide are private regulated 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:18.480 utility systems. Of the sixty percent of the systems owned 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:22.680 by local governments. Privatization by contracting of operations management has 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:26.560 grown rapidly since two thousand and one. Nationwide, the privatization 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:30.640 of water wastewater grew by thirteen percent after growing eighty 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:33.120 four percent over the decade. 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:34.360 In the nineteen nineties. 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:38.520 Right, So what that means is almost half of y'all 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:42.320 are paying a private company for your water. Now, let's 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:46.520 make some distinctions here between public utilities and private utilities, 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:48.000 and you. 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:49.880 Know what are we even talking about? 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:53.440 So public utilities are owned and operated by your local, 0:15:53.480 --> 0:15:56.360 state and federal governments on behalf of the citizens and 0:15:56.440 --> 0:16:02.000 customers in that area. So up, public utility would be 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:06.640 your municipal water, sewage, sanitation services, like if you have 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:11.520 a public electricity providers, government government ran public transit systems, 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:18.240 state owned telecommunication companies, public utilities right now, listen, here's 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:21.440 where it's interesting. Have to balance serving the public interest 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:26.520 while remaining financially sustainable since they are not profit driven. 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:31.960 Any revenue earned is invested back into maintaining the infrastructure 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:35.720 of the operations, which seems like a big old dug. 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:40.080 We're not here to make money. This is not our 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:46.160 money making interest. This is living, right, It's a utility. Like, 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:48.360 it's just I'm not trying to make money off it. 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:51.520 I'm trying to keep the lights on, right, But as 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:54.840 we know, it costs to do those things, so the 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:58.640 temptation becomes easy to be like, how do I offload 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:03.000 this cost right and make sure that this service is there, because, 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:08.200 as you know, oftentimes public utilities don't be very good. 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:12.760 You know what I'm saying. Flint still ain't got fresh 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:16.919 water right now. Altadena is in a situation where they 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.520 was like, look, don't even boil the water, like whatever 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:23.679 coming out of your tap is just not good. 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:27.280 Boiling is not good enough. Like, do not drink this water? 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:31.159 Right is the situation that they in and it's like, 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:33.800 we're where the money at, Like, how are we going 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:34.359 to fix this? 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:36.399 Now? That's a public utility. 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:42.000 Now, private utility is utilities obviously owned and operated by 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:48.080 private companies. So that would be an investored owned electricity 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:53.120 company like a private telecommunication, private owned oil gas and pipelines, 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:57.320 and private owned waste management companies. Now, their goal, because 0:17:57.320 --> 0:17:59.760 it's a company, is still to make profit for their 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:05.440 shaitareholders while also delivering reliable service. Now, they argument their 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:08.520 defense would be, if we don't give you a good product, 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:12.800 we won't have customers. So it is in our best 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:17.040 interests for our own money to give you a best service. However, 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:20.120 are you seeing the truck size hole in their logic? 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:22.200 Nigga, we don't have a choice. 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:25.320 Do you have a choice as to what water company 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:28.160 provides the water to your house? Who go run the sewer? 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:32.080 I don't have an option anyway. So the key differences 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:33.040 are very obvious. 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:36.000 Right. One is the ownership and motives. 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:39.760 Like publicly owned utilities serve the public interests rather than 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:43.800 pursue profits. Right, private owned utilities are there for their 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:45.520 investors in the maximize returns. 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:46.760 Regulation and pricing. 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:50.359 Public utilities are regulated by the government apported commissions that 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:55.880 oversee pricing. Private utilities are also regulated, but usually more 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:59.119 flexible in their rate setting, because what the hell you 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:02.080 gonna do? Get you a called a water company, be like, 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:03.800 I ain't paying this bill. They gonna be like, ool, 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:07.920 no problem. Service areas most publics utility service customers are 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:12.640 within municipal boundaries. Investor owned utilities often are defined by 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:17.760 regional monopolies with little overlap or competition with customers. Listen, 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:22.840 if you ever moved into an apartment and you was like, y'all, 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:26.800 I'm trying to, like, you know, install cable, and they 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:29.640 was like, or your Internet. It was like, oh, it's 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:31.240 at and t over here. I was like, oh, but 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:33.840 I have spectrum. They're like Spectrum don't serve this area. 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:34.320 Nigga. 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:38.800 It's the Internet, it's the air, it's wires, this polls 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:42.800 I'm not allowed to. U can't come over here because 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:46.440 it's a private company. Now I'm in a situation where 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:48.800 AT and T knock on my door every day and 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:51.720 being like, yo, we laying fiber optics. You know we 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:53.560 lay we laying new pipes down here, up under you, 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:54.720 up under your street. 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:56.359 We can move faster than Spectrum. 0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:59.240 I done ditch them both, and then Spectrum still email 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:01.159 me every day s Bectrum sent somebody was like, we 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:03.240 heard you left Spectrum. We're trying to figure out why. 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:06.200 I'm like nigga because I don't want to use either 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:10.159 of y'all, but we're the area you serve. When I 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.000 first moved into the house that I'm in now, like 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:19.639 I made an account on Edison and they were like, oh, nigga, 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:23.000 Edison don't serve here. You had SoCal Gas And I 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:26.160 was like, who the hell is so cal Gas? They 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:29.240 was like that's who's who else gonna give me the gap? 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:31.800 I don't have no options. Oh, I got to live 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:32.200 in LA. 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:37.840 This is who serves LA infrastructure spending with public utilities, 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:40.840 they might find it easier to raise funds for long 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:46.040 term capital projects and maintain infrastructure proactively, while privately owned 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:51.360 businesses and utilities answered to shareholders seeking returns, which impact 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:56.680 investment decisions. Meaning, if I'm like, Yo, somebody gotta clean 0:20:56.760 --> 0:21:01.160 this sewer pipe because this water ain't good in this neighborhood, 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:03.600 it would be whove the City of Los Angeles to 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:05.639 fix this, and it would be easy for them because 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:08.680 I am a Los Angeles resident. This is a public utility. 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:11.520 If I have private water, they might be like, oh, 0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:13.800 how much. 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:15.400 Money that's that neighborhood give us? 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:17.320 You know, if we fix the water up there in 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:20.639 Palace verd aids you know what I'm saying, Like, we 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:22.360 got to talk to them because they know, I mean, 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:24.679 they kind of give us the breads, so they're not 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:27.560 incentivized necessarily to fix my infrastructure. 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:30.520 Right, and then the customer service focus right. 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:34.640 Public utilities often focus more on customer satisfaction and addressing 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:39.520 community complaints, while private entities have profit motives. I mean, 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:44.520 I don't know what else I need to explain to y'all. Right, now, 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:47.520 let me show you how this works and what the 0:21:48.320 --> 0:21:53.440 allure is for a public city council to make this decision. 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:56.840 Are y'all here to more perfect union? It's another one 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:00.760 of those podcast folks that just got more money than us. 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:03.720 They able to produce things that we had bread, We 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:07.359 would produce it anyway. They did one about investor own 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:13.080 water companies and how they lobby to give them the 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:15.399 contract to run their sewage and water, right. 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:17.960 And it's a super dope stuff. It's a super dope study. 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:20.760 It's a good, like focused study to show like as 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:24.120 sort of an example of how it can happen anywhere. 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:29.720 And they focused this one study on this city in Pennsylvania, right. 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:33.239 And here's the ill part about all of this is 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:35.240 that how would you know this is happening? 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:37.760 I mean, are you really looking at the logo on 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:39.600 your water bill? I mean. 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:44.400 No, you just like looking at the costs, right and 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:48.000 hoping that it don't be that much. Now again, if 0:22:48.040 --> 0:22:50.000 you've written it, if you're rent in an apartment, I 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:51.720 don't know what utilities you gotta cover. 0:22:51.840 --> 0:22:53.480 Right, Let's say you are written in an apartment. 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:54.720 You know what I'm saying, Like a lot of times, 0:22:54.760 --> 0:22:57.560 Joe utilities, It's like it's like they cover water and gas, 0:22:57.560 --> 0:22:59.960 you cover electricity and internet and then whatever it is. 0:23:00.680 --> 0:23:03.320 I'm not thinking about who the company is. I'm just 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:07.200 like paying the bill. But if one day your bill triple, 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:10.439 I mean, who do you call you like, I haven't 0:23:10.640 --> 0:23:14.760