re: .

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Your position depends on broad generalizations.

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broad generalizations of what? do you think you can just toss around rhetoric and act as if you've made some kind of point? There are no "broad generalizations" in my position. Water is a necessity, hair color and manicures are not. Very simple.

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customers who legitimately can't afford to pay from those who've simply opted not to.

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What is their definition of legitimate? What would be yours for that matter? What constitutes a "legitimate" failure to pay a water bill?

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And let's set the bar lower than "poverty", and go with " extreme poverty", people living on less than $2 per day. Over 1% of Americans fit this definition, and it doesn't matter how much assistance you get, you can't pay a $65 water bill with only $60.

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Should have read the full study:

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About 866,000 households
appear to live in extreme poverty across
a full calendar quarter

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assuming 300MM people in the US, that' .28% of households.

Then:

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When we consider SNAP benefits as
equivalent to dollars, this reduces the
number of extremely poor households
with children by about half.

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quote:

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Beyond SNAP, many households with
children in extreme poverty also appear to
have access to other in-kind benefits. At
the beginning of 2011, roughly one-in-five
households in extreme poverty utilized a
housing subsidy such as section 8 vouchers
or public housing units

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We can go round and round about how many of these people actually live in "extreme" poverty, but the bottom line is that the number we arrive at is panning out to be VERY low. Let's be generous and say that 5% fall in this category. The other 95% can afford it and choose to spend their money elsewhere.