Smart Meters. Who Benefits?

My attention was drawn to an advert in the Metro (Wednesday, June 13) posing the idea that “If we all get a smart meter we could save enough energy to power every home in Aberdeen, Cardiff, and Manchester for 365 days.”

Capitalists are always trying to get workers to identify themselves with their interests. The additional comments prove this.

“With a smart meter, you could save an average of 354kWh of energy a year. Because when you’re using, you can make a few small changes and use less of it. Save your energy for powering cities.”

On examining these words from a class point of view, I would point out that the need not to pay wages to people reading meters would benefit the capitalist selling electricity. The small changes I make would if made, probably save me some money (not my energy to save) it would not be used by me to power cities. We don’t sell electricity, We buy it.

The advert has a night time picture showing a massive lit-up city. Shareholders in electricity companies evidently are making money even while they sleep. Workers don’t get paid while they sleep.

Many workers are in need of heating but use very little of it, the result of poor wages, unemployment etc. so this idea that (we could save enough energy to power every home in Aberdeen, Cardiff, and Manchester) is nonsense.

When we own the means of production in common, we will mean everyone not the shareholders of a capitalist enterprise.

YFS
PH