Ill-informed state senators appear to have either “forgotten” OR were never aware of it as they don’t have to worry too much about paying for meals by themselves.

Hay Jason – did you catch the lobbyist accusations. I knew they were coming eventually. I get all nostalgic when I think back to when you had to have half a brain to be on the computer.

I don’t even know what a “beer pong game” is.

I have no “fear of ‘the bankers’”, Icky. I have respect for our Constitution. I also have a lot of Christian AND Jewish friends, and a number of them are rather offended by your comments so far. Rethink them, please.

Hey Icky, what’s next? Making fun of Bill’s last name for being too Jewish? Or do you have some other dose of religious intolerance up your robe?

Dang, I didn’t even mention the FeCENSORED ReCENSORED. Take a chill pill, dude.

Another threadjack whereby Taft decides that any economic application comes from the people who think New Coke is a conspiracy.

Constitution. Constitution. Constitution.

::downs tequila bottle::

The “father of modern economics,” said Austrian economist Murray Rothbard, was a “gallicized Irish merchant, banker, and adventurer who wrote the first treatise on economics more than four decades before the publication of the Wealth of Nations.” Cantillon, believed to be born in about 1680, most likely in Ireland, immigrated to Paris, and later on, moved to London, where details of his life are somewhat fuzzy.

In fact, I’m thinking that Austrian Economics should be renamed Irish Economics. Karen De Coster has a great writeup on him here.

I am super, thanks for asking.

We shouldn’t give Donnie such a hard time. I’m sure he just dashed in from his afternoon beer pong game on the front lawn, and decided to check the computer in between showering and covering himself in Axe body spray before hitting the town with his other frat brothers tonight.

You would think that instead of GA Power putting the quantity of frat-boy reject lobbyists on their payroll for this one, they might have just decided on a couple of quality. Or at least, God forbid, one or two that would make a half-assed attempt to understand the audience they were writing for during their grass roots/earned media part of the campaign.

Now, I doubt Donnie here will understand that since his job, as A#1 Lobbyist for Ga Power, is to completely obfuscate the issue…and, quite honestly, I doubt that he has ever been introduced to the concept of “opportunity cost” and what it means.

(I wonder…are we talking to a direct-hire of Ga Power here, or one the Georgia Link boys?)

First of all, I’m having trouble keeping up. Are you “Pro Nuke”, “Freeze To Death”, or one of the other 30-70 (lost count) lobbyists that have been hired to grace us with your presence for your “earned media” campaign?

Now, to your often obfuscated point: I have an opportunity cost of my funds, whether $13 a month now, or $13 a month plus compounded interest later. You are trying to tell me and the other rate payers that we’re better off if we pay this today.

Here’s the problem:

I am not a debt free consumer. I’m going to bet that over 95% of GA Power’s consumers are also not debt free.

So, if I have an “extra” $13 a month, (we have to assume this money is extra, don’t we, since you keep throwing the number around like it’s just a rounding error. Funny that GA Power feels the need to have so many people twisting arms for such a small dollar amount, by their logic…)…Anyway, we have this extra $13/month, and you are assuming there is no cost for it. But because I’m not debt free, we have to understand that my opportunity cost is the HIGHEST amount of interest I am currently paying on any borrowed money. Let’s just assume that for most GA consumers, that’s 18%. So, by paying you that money, the average GA consumer is going to have to pay credit card rates of 18% on this money that could otherwise pay down their personal debt.

GA Power, on the other hand, can borrow money from the bond market at very attractive rates. Haven’t dipped into that pool lately, but let’s just say it’s at 6% (and I think I’m guessing high). Now let’s all understand that as a business, GA Power can deduct this money as a business expense from their income, and for our exercise, let’s assume that they pay 33% in taxes. Thus, the effective rate is 4%.

Now, that 18% I’m paying on my credit cards isn’t tax deductible, so I’m stuck paying that if we approve this plan to let GA Power take that extra from me now, for a plant that may never come on line. But if GA Power finances the plant, the effective rate that they will capitalize interest to me is at 4%.

So the question to me as a consumer is, Am I better off if I pay 18% interest on something now that I may never get, (SB 31 solution), or if I let GA Power pay interest at an effective rate of 4% and capitalize that, and let them charge me the compounded rate if and when they get this plan on line (the proposal in front of the PSC).

Your “no brainer” continues to tell me that GA Power and the GA General Assembly assumes that the voters/consumers have no brains.

The one key difference is this: If it was THEIR money that HAD to be carrying the interest costs and construction costs, they would not be be wishing to tarry too often in the projected 6-year timetable. Because if are unable to begin to “recover costs” until they actually finish and have the plant certified by the NRC, they will be more focused on finishing their construction work on time so that they can then recover their costs.

The PSC is the only entity that should be considering or examining any element of this issue. If they decide in favor of Georgia Power, then at least the decision was reached by using the proper legal avenues and process.