[muhfuhkuh]

Water is both a matter of public trust and run by the town, at least here in Research Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill), North Carolina USA. It never gets shut down (unless you don't pay for 2 whole months, and even then only if you're under 65 years old), they send out water tests every quarter, and about 5 years ago they switched over to smart water metrics using Aquasense modules.

We as taxpayers subsidized fiber in this country, we should (as they have in England with BT) force incumbents to share those subsidized lines to competition. Let the competition worry about the last 200 feet leading to my house. Because Buddha knows the incumbents aren't too worried about running it.

For better or worse, we actually are trying to do something about universal care. It's just that there is a particular generation of voters and lawmakers that are truly afraid of losing their level of care to cover who they view as younger and less deserving generations/cultures/people.