There are 8 replies in this Thread which was already clicked 359 times. The last Post () by bebopalula.
I’m confused. When Macri came in, utilities subsidies started to be removed; in BsAs, this was a neighborhood-by-neighborhood process. When our landlord faced skyrocketing utilities costs, he had to stop the utilities-included rental agreement we had always had with him, and we started paying for actual electricity and gas used. Believe me, that was a jolt, and we started paying attention to our usage.
When our expected late 2020 return to BsAs was canceled by the lockdown, and ensuing situations postponed our return, we lost track of the utilities question. Did F&F return to the subsidy system? Or, Splinter , did your area never have the subsidies removed until now?
I’m confused. When Macri came in, utilities subsidies started to be removed; in BsAs, this was a neighborhood-by-neighborhood process. When our landlord faced skyrocketing utilities costs, he had to stop the utilities-included rental agreement we had always had with him, and we started paying for actual electricity and gas used. Believe me, that was a jolt, and we started paying attention to our usage.
When our expected late 2020 return to BsAs was canceled by the lockdown, and ensuing situations postponed our return, we lost track of the utilities question. Did F&F return to the subsidy system? Or, Splinter , did your area never have the subsidies removed until now?
Things never really changed, they just shifted the goalposts. This government is busy trying to remove subsidies because the IMF has insisted on it, not to mention astronomical public spending, but of course they now have a social Gordian Knot to contend with. Upset the chori voters or upset the middle class. No prizes for guessing who they don't mind upsetting.
That’s for sure!
Things might not have changed in La Lucila, but the subsidies were definitely dropped in Palermo, where both gas and electricity went overnight from absurdly low rates to rates so high you’d think twice before turning on the hot water tap or using the oven.
Subsidies disappeared for a bit but I think they crept back in.
As many people on other blogs have mentioned, gas and electricity are so cheap, that you never really think about turning things off.
Apart from getting pissed off when the government calls an end to a good thing, the decent thing they have done is to put a limit on the electricity and gas that subsidy receivers actually use. So the people I know who leave the central heating when they go to work in the morning to keep the dog warm will have to rethink.
The big uncertainty is that no one is sure when it all starts and no one is sure of what the bills will really be like.
Uncertainty on money matters is certainly stressful. I guess the positive side of that is that, fearing the worst, people will stop being so wasteful.
Not having had access to the utility bills when renting, we had no idea how much electricity and gas we were using. Not wanting to take advantage of our landlord, we were abstemious, never once turning on heat during the cold days in September, and using air conditioning only on days hotter than 35 Celsius (even hotter on the 11th floor!). Needless to say, once the subsidies were removed and it was all coming out of our pocket, we made further cuts, and we’re still rather shocked at the size of the surcharge for a relatively small apartment.
That’s the kind of change that usually helps defeat the party in power.
And what are utility bills looking like now? I stayed the month of November in Olivos in an AirBnB which of course was "all in". I often felt guilty about putting the aircon on but without an idea of what the utilities cost. It was a studio apartment near the train station.
Nothing like as bad as they are in the UK right now. Because of the energy crisis, prices in the UK have shot right up but the UK government have imposed a temporary price cap for domestic electricity of 34 pence per kilowatt/hour. That's approximately ARS100 per kWh by my reckoning. Our New Years' Eve guests here in CABA couldn't believe it.
Yikes! 34p per kwh?? How much electricity does the average family use?
Yikes! 34p per kwh?? How much electricity does the average family use?
Here's a link to a Telegraph article which explains:
<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/mo…d-britain-have-done-stop/>
(turn off javascript if you don't have a subscription)
And here's a link to the official Parliamentary briefings:
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9491/
(no subterfuge required)
The graph on the front page of the parliamentary briefing talks about average levels of consumption but it's such a vague term that I personally don't find it very useful. On average our energy consumption is higher than for the equivalent families in other countries because the UK housing stock is generally pretty old and poorly insulated.
