Richie,
Good thoughts!
OK, now one to cheer us up.
You build a house with a great new bathroom. Everybody else on your street has older homes with older plumbing. As a result of your investment your tub fills faster. This enables you to take your bath and do many other things, while others are still waiting for their bathtubs to fill. You decide to let a couple of neighbors use your bath tub once a week for a small fee that you both agree is fair. One really rich neighbor doesn't want to pay your price. He gets a bunch of his influential friends together and goes crying to the government, and so you are forced to let them all take baths in your new tub.
Now there are long lines all day and night outside of your house because everyone in town says it's the law that you must let them use your bathroom. You try to charge them for their baths to cover the cost of building your new bathroom, for running the water, for wear and tear, and to make some profit (otherwise, what the heck are you doing this for?!), but the people again cry foul to the government and now you are told exactly how much you can charge for use of your bathroom.
You are now either breaking even (highly in doubt based on the cost of domestic disruption alone) or you are more likely losing money. You can't even find time to take a bath for yourself! Disgusted, you leave your home and let them have it. You go far away and live in a cave somewhere and hate civilization.
Now, try it with the toilet! <vbg>
EG |
