Usually this thread is about the massive and sudden power outtages that come from Grid Failures, not this one though. This one is about the ongoing Economic Blackout occurring in Greece at the astounding rate of 30K customers/mo.
When you consider a "customer" is usually a family and sometimes a whole apartment complex, probably at least 100K people lose juice for the toaster every month. In a country with a population of 11.3M, at that rate they are all lights out in 9 years or so, though I doubt it takes that long because pretty soon the Greek Goobemint won't be able to buy coal for the power plants, which probably are in worse condition than the one Roamer worked in.
Is this Fast Collapse or Slow Catabolic Collapse? If your a Greek who can't make toast this morning, it's fast. If you are in Amerika where toast making may go on another 20 years, its slow. How you perceive the collapse all depends on where you are and when the shitstorm makes it to your neighborhood.
Portuguese Judges just declared Troika Austerity measures Unconstitutional, and now the Portguese are talking about issuing Treasury Notes directly to their workers as salary. Who would take this Toilet Paper? Well, the ECB better take it, because they hold a shit load of said Notes already, and if they go Worthless out in the REAL Market, the ECB is insolvent because of leverage. This is tangential though, what I am trying to point out is that in short order electric customers in Portugal are going No Toast, and not long after that Italians & Spanish will be Toastless also. You will have to hike the Alps into Switzerland to make toast.
I just don't see a Slow Catabolic Collapse in action here, I see a Snowball rolling down a Hill getting Bigger all the time, and its not going to roll down the hill leaving the rest of the snow up on the mountain. It's going to start an AVALANCHE at some point here.
Right now here in the FSoA if you haven't yet fallen off the Economic Cliff, it may SEEM to you like a Slow Collapse, a Municipality goes BK here, a few more Air Traffic Controllers get laid off there, maybe the local Sears Outlet closes in your Mall, but you still can buy a new Toaster at Walmart at Low, Low Prices Everyday, and likely to get LOWER as the Chinese battle the Japanese in currency devaluation. Pretty soon they will be dumping Toasters on the market for $5 a pop. You think I'm kidding? Last year before Christmas I bought a couple of Electric Slow Cookers for exactly that price, almost half what a pack of smokes costs up here.
At some point of course the Toaster Makers and Slow Cooker Makers will shut down though, because Globally not enough people will still be getting Electric power to their McHovels to keep the production lines running. You can only fudge sales and Channel Stuff for so long before it gets obvious nobody is really buying.
I suppose to some people this seems Slow, but just looking back to 2008 when I got my wake up call, it's progressing very rapidly. In just 5 years we have the Sovereign failures I predicted on Peak Oil in 2008, and both the Euro and Yen,"strong currencies", are teetering on the Brink of Collapse, propped up by financial legerdermain and hanky-panky in EXTREMIS.
On the Social level, Strikes are an every day occurrence in Eurotrashland now, countries aren't able to form "Democratically Elected" Goobermints which can effectively do ANYTHING, Unemployment Stats are Double Digits and you can tell they are on the verge of a Political EXPLOSION.
Anyhow, when enough people who USED to be able to Make Toast can't make it anymore except over a Campfire if they can scrounge deadfall or Burn Furniture, the collapse will move to the next level and accelerate. It's not moving slow now, and it's accelerating. Some link in some chain will break, and then things will move faster still. I can't say when it will cross the pond from Eurotrashland, but given it took 5 years for them from 2008, I'll give it best case 5 years here. Elvis gives it 2, that is certainly possible too. Either way, and even a decade in the making, it's still Fast Crash for an Industrial Society it took 2 centuries to put in place.
RE
30,000 Greek Households Lose Electricity Each MonthSubmitted by Tyler Durden on 04/07/2013 19:08 -0400
Greece
Since the Greek government enacted the remarkable law that property taxes will be enforced via the electricity providers in the beleaguered country, an incredible 30,000 households per month have seen their power supply cut off. Ekathimerini reports that some 700,000 customers have now had their debts restructured (with payment plans) as part of the billing process; but what is perhaps incredible is that while the State has specifically banned 'disconnection' for not paying the property charges, the utility's computer system is unable to distinguish if payment is for electricity or property tax. There are apparently workarounds involving deposits for tax debts but the situation is set to deteriorate further this year due to the increase in electricity rates and expected further reductions in household incomes.
Via ekathimerini,
About 1,000 electricity connections are cut every day in Greece as Public Power Corporation customers are increasingly unable to pay their power bills on time, while accumulated debts to the country’s electricity giant stood at more than 1.3 billion euros at the end of 2012. This is not only due to the economic crisis that has eaten into household incomes, but also to the special property tax paid via power bills.
PPC data show that some 700,000 customers had had their debts rearranged with new payment plans by the end of last year, up from 400,000 at the end of 2011. The situation is set to deteriorate this year due to the increase in PPC rates and expected further reductions in household incomes.
...
There is, however, a particular problem with the special property tax. While the Council of State has banned the disconnection of houses for not paying the property charge through the PPC bill, if customers do pay for their electricity, PPC’s software cannot distinguish between payment for the property tax and that for electricity. As a result, the corporation cannot tell whether consumers have paid toward their power bill or just a part of their property tax unless they have paid the full amount.
...
PPC says that this problem can be overcome by the taxpayers visiting the tax offices, where they can apply to have their property levy paid separately to the tax authority, which involves the payment of a 50-euro deposit. Afterward, any payment delay will only concern the customer and the tax office, and not PPC.
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Topic: Lights OUT! The Official Blackout Thread (Read 30980 times)
December 21, 2017, 09:22:52 AM