Will Las Vegas Drown... In Water Debt?

Have you ever heard of a hidden tax? It's a tax you pay when you buy something, but you don't realize you're paying it. One of your suppliers paid it, and transferred that cost to you – in the price. Most often, we never notice – until the tax, and the price, goes way up.

What if, somehow, a new tax was imposed by a far away power – on something you absolutely had to have? What if this “tax” was a huge tax on water? In fact, what if it was even worse than any tax? What if it was interest on debt?

This isn't some imaginary exercise, however. People, communities, and nations all over the world have found themselves drowning in debt. One could even argue that usury has become an imperialist tactic – and that financial looting is happening everywhere. So, why don't we just stop borrowing? It's complicated. But sometimes, we feel that what we need is worth the risk of borrowing money for it. Of course, sometimes, the decisions are made for us.

Everyone who has ever lived in the desert knows that the most valuable resource in the desert is water. It's the only thing you can get a whole community “fight'n mad” upset over. Nobody ever wants to run out of water. Not ever...

The fear is so elemental, so beyond reason; that water shortages may be the ultimate weapon to con a community. We all know that we will pay whatever it costs to have water. When it comes to water, we're no better off than a junkie. And we know there are people salivating over business deals like that. They want to be Southern Nevada's “supplier” – so they can charge any price – for rural Nevada's water. That's right. This “plan” looks like someone is scheming to steal from the right hand to overcharge the left. And this won't just be an up front charge. Prices are subject to change.

Just think about other forms of credit. You don't just pay back what you borrow. And there isn't just interest. There's fees. There's hidden fees. And there's refinancing fees. SNWA's estimate of 3.5 billion dollars is just the principle for the Groundwater Development Project. You can be rest assured that the banks involved will work every trick in the book to make the true cost far higher.

What a scam.

What a multi-billion dollar, economy crushing scam!

Yes; it's true I don't want the watergrab to happen because I feel that the act of a community stealing the natural wealth of it's neighbors to artificially sustain unsustainable growth is just wrong – inherently amoral. But I also fear for Las Vegas. Because I see another banking loan scam coming that would ultimately financially ruin Las Vegas. Everyone remembers the housing bubble, fueled by senseless loans that ultimately crashed the world economy. Well, they can't run that scam any more. Nobody has any more money. So, the next scam is to loot their community's money.

It is likely that there have been a number of powerful international bankers, over the course of the years, who've lost a lot of money in Las Vegas (gambling). Some of them might have even gone away angry. Couldn't it be possible that someone among these powerful bankers finally just said; “My turn.” Or then again, maybe this is just another step in a systematic looting of the world.

Is Las Vegas under attack? I'm not certain. But there are terrifying signs...

There is this boondogle of a watergrab going on – right under under everyone's feet. It will cost billions. (I have a good idea of how many billions now. I'll let you know in my next post.) And though Las Vegas doesn't need the water, Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) intends to start construction next year.

An unelected “Authority” (and some Clark County Commissioners) are going to plunge Southern Nevada into billions of dollars in debt for water they don't really need – when the area doesn't really have that much money.

What's wrong with this picture?

It would take a drought of disaster capitalism proportions to get this through. (Either that, or a mega-greedy attitude that Las Vegas should just keep doubling in population every few years – forever – or at least for the rest of the investors' lives.)

We already know that most Las Vegans don't really want to see that much more growth in Las Vegas. And we can already surmise that no Las Vegans want to pay billions for water for some other community. So; there is no need - at least not at this cost.

The SNWA watergrab is not popular. “We the people” wouldn't vote for it. When you look at it that way, the SNWA watergrab is in fact an act of usurping the citizens' sovereignty. The watergrab is undemocratic. We wouldn't vote for it!

But that's OK. Some County Commissioners will decide for us. ...And if somebody were to pay them a bunch of money (under the table), maybe they will decide against us.

What's at stake is the future of Las Vegas and Nevada. Both of our economies will be devastated when this (robbing Peter to pay Paul) water scheme doesn't work out. Someday, we may look back and see this as an attack.

(I'm starting to suspect a conspiracy here.)

Other American cities have come under attack already. Not a violent attack, but just as destructive as a violent attack in the long run. They owe billions. They've had to make ludicrous cutbacks. People are sick, and dying without health care. Children aren't getting an education. Critical services, such as police and fire departments have had to cut back. Everyone involved is in debt... because their community is in debt.

Maybe it's just our turn now... Oh yeah... It already is.

Most Third World countries are far too familiar with conquest by debt. Europe and America are next. Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain have already been looted by international investors (banks). All that's left for these countries is debt and deconstruction. But that's not how the banks see it... They're just maximizing their profits.

I used to think that SNWA was going to privatize and overcharge it's customers. I don't think that anymore. Straightforward water privatizing is so 20^th century. We wouldn't fall for that. (But we might fall for a water project.)

I now realize that banks don't have to privatize municipalities.

All they have to do is socialize the costs.

Las Vegas is small time compared to these Banksters.

But they're still a big catch.

Something smells very fishy about this whole project.

We want to make win-win decisions.

This smells lose-lose-game over.