Power Company shuts a Home's power off - Veteran inside freezes to death

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/vietnam-vet-cancer-freezes-death-his-home

A Vietnam vet with cancer hadn't been paying his bills to the power companies. Without investigating, Consumer Energy shut off the 69-yr-old's power in the middle of the night, which resulted in the man freezing to death. He was found twelve days later.

Thoughts?



I have no idea what's the bias or authenticity is on this site.

why.

Fuckin' assholes.

Clonehunter said:

Thoughts?

Where's Joseph Mixen and why hasn't he been paying his power bills?

To be fair, the company sent three shutoff notices in advance and they had no telephone number to contact him (so they claim.) Still, in the middle of the WINTER somebody should be sent to the home to investigate. Tragic for sure.

Here in Illinois that's not permitted. Even if you owe them money they can't shut off power in high heat and low cold. That company made a choice and the company will survive giving the elderly free heat within limits.

The way I see it, if a company chooses to operate in something approaching a civilized society, they need to act like they're a part of it. If that means they can't just shut somebody's power off in the middle of winter, then that's what they need to put up with. Otherwise, they can fuck right off and somebody else can handle it.

To this day Vietnam vets are still getting screwed over all the time.

Jaxxoon R said:

To this day Vietnam vets are still getting screwed over all the time.

I always wondered if it's because they lost.. But then again, alot of vets (not just vietnam) get screwed.

From what I read, another tenant was responsible for the bills, and hadn't been paying them. The company also sent three shutoff notices, and got no response.

Du Mhan Yhu said:

I always wondered if it's because they lost.. But then again, alot of vets (not just vietnam) get screwed.

There's a good article that explores the root causes of this:
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/12/the-tragedy-of-the-american-military/383516/

If you can't look after your veterans when they come home, don't send them to war.

I was just thinking companies need to start wars like they buy arenas. We could have the Coca-Cola War. That would be the official name of it. Not like the power company started the war. The government could be paying for his heat.... or again like here in IL the power company could take it upon themselves to not turn off his heat because he's old and its cold.

I can't watch Game of Thrones, because its about a bullshit war over land that will generate money due to its resources. Like real war. I'm shocked wars still exist, but again as long as there's land with resources, there will always be people willing to take it by force.

Well, most shutoff's are still done at the home via the meter box. One would think that the tech responsible would at least check to see if someone was still living in the residence before cutting the power. But, given how people work these days, the tech probably shut off the power at the meter and took off. It's a bad situation all around. I just wish the electric company would own up to their part in it and do something. Instead of giving a canned response.

Geo wars will continue to happen so long as there is people on this earth. No matter what, people will always find a reason to fight.

Enjay said:

If you can't look after your veterans when they come home, don't send them to war.

http://www.toonhole.com/comics/2012-11-12-WarVeteran.jpg

Jaxxoon R said:

To this day Vietnam vets are still getting screwed over all the time.

This shit happens to people more often than you'd think, and you never hear about it. Then it happens to a BONAFIDE 'MURICAN HERO and suddenly it's news! Yeah it sucks that the guy fought in a war and then had a bad break, but it's not like anyone was trying to "screw over vets".

Shit like that happened even in Greece, where supposedly we have a "social" state, and it got worse with the crisis.

According to neolib wet dreams, to avoid such unpleasantries, we should all STFU and become as "competitive" as this fella here, who literally wastes nothing:

See how happy he is? No problems of cold because down there in Brasil they have "Sol y Mar" all year round, and he's ultra-competitive by not weighing on public finances, by recycling literally every last bit(e). HEIL MERKEL!

AirRaid said:

This shit happens to people more often than you'd think, and you never hear about it. Then it happens to a BONAFIDE 'MURICAN HERO and suddenly it's news!...

Believe me, this shit happens all the time.

I'm not sure if it's fair to call Vietnam vets 'MURICAN heroes considering many didn't want to fight, though.

Yeah I'm not sure not paying for over $800 of electrical bills qualifies as getting screwed over. Everyone has to pay their bills, even Vietnam vets and cancer patients. Having not known any better, when I started paying bills, I was surprised my utilities weren't shut off the instant I'd had one overdue payment. Now I know you can get away with it for almost 4 months.

Jaxxoon R said:

I'm not sure if it's fair to call Vietnam vets 'MURICAN heroes considering many didn't want to fight, though.

Not the point, I was just exaggerating. My point was the only reason this is news is because this case involved a war veteran, and the site wanted to use the angle.

Gez said:

There's a good article that explores the root causes of this:
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/12/the-tragedy-of-the-american-military/383516/

Interesting/informative (and long) read, thanks for the link Gez.

Usually not much sympathy from me, but I know Michigan has routines in place that stop this from happening, so shame on them.

Jaxxoon R said:

Believe me, this shit happens all the time.

I'm not sure if it's fair to call Vietnam vets 'MURICAN heroes considering many didn't want to fight, though.

Hero or not (and I think the term is heavily overused... most are just "soldiers"), the country does owe Vietnam vets some level of respect, because they actually threw away whatever life they had at the time to go fight a stupid war when their number came up in the draft. They did their part, and followed the law rather than run away to Canada or whatever. On top of that, many of them came back damaged physically or mentally. So they are deserving of at least respect, and never of being left to starve or freeze to death or whatever...

Clonehunter said:

[url]Without investigating, Consumer Energy shut off the 69-yr-old's power in the middle of the night, which resulted in the man freezing to death. He was found twelve days later.

Thoughts?

It doesn't say in the article that the power was shut off in the middle of the night. Power shutoffs are done during normal business hours. Unless you are somehow trying to insinuate that someone is going to die of hypothermia the moment the furnace shuts off. It wasn't that cold where he lived during that time frame...unless he kept his windows open and slept without blankets or some shit. Basically, the power would've been turned off morning or midday whenever a tech got there. He had time to do something, anything.

But putting that aside, there is a hell of a lot more going on in this horribly written story. First off, it wasn't this guys power bill, it was someone elses, a person he was apparently living with...that no one can contact and no one knows anything about? His family had no idea where he was living, which is really fucking odd considering his age and medical condition. Very sad story all around though. Every entity involved failed in some respect.

hex11 said:

Hero or not (and I think the term is heavily overused... most are just "soldiers"), the country does owe Vietnam vets some level of respect, because they actually threw away whatever life they had at the time to go fight a stupid war when their number came up in the draft. They did their part, and followed the law rather than run away to Canada or whatever. On top of that, many of them came back damaged physically or mentally. So they are deserving of at least respect, and never of being left to starve or freeze to death or whatever...

Pretty much.

My grandfather on my brothers side was a Nam vet and it pissed me off to no end when someone mistreated him. Even in this day and age, it's still happening.

The guy had a scar that started on his left shoulder that pretty much zig-zag'ed its way down his chest to his belt from where he got caught in ambush by a group that had a machine gun. He also had three bullets lodged in his legs that they where unable to safely remove. And some people would still treat him like crap.

Don't take your anger out on the people who where forced to fight in a war like Nam or Iraq, take your anger out on the corrupt politicians who started the wars in the first fucking place.

Fulgrim said:

Don't take your anger out on the people who where forced to fight in a war like Nam or Iraq

AFAIK, in Nam's era conscription was still in effect (with well-known consequences), while by the time of the first Iraq war (hell, even before that) the US Army had been transformed to a fully voluntary-professional army.

No doubt, the backlash and social issues caused by drafting just any random Joe and sending him to fight "Charlie" in some jungle thousand of miles from home in Nam, were enough to make the DoD to consider this transition. After all, a voluntary professional is much less likely to complain even if he gets badly maimed, than a conscript that couldn't care less about being impaled on some Nam punji stick in the name of "Democracy" and "Freedom", against the "Red Tide".

This has nothing to do with him being a vet: Power isn't free - the power company is providing a service, and charging money for it. All he had to do was pay for what he received. Would you continue to go to work if your employer refused to pay you?

The power company did not "turn off his heat", they just stopped giving away their product for free. He could have lit a fire, wrapped up in the covers. He could have gone to a friend's house to mooch off their heat.

What is up with this "entitlement" kick everyone is on? I take pride in paying my bills and being responsible, to the best of my ability.

hex11 said:

Hero or not (and I think the term is heavily overused... most are just "soldiers"), the country does owe Vietnam vets some level of respect, because they actually threw away whatever life they had at the time to go fight a stupid war when their number came up in the draft. They did their part, and followed the law rather than run away to Canada or whatever. On top of that, many of them came back damaged physically or mentally. So they are deserving of at least respect, and never of being left to starve or freeze to death or whatever...

I thought it was well known that 'MURICAN or 'MURICA are terms describing over-patriotic redneck loons, so that's what I assumed AirRaid meant, and so that's what I meant when I used it.

So this:

I'm not sure if it's fair to call Vietnam vets 'MURICAN heroes considering many didn't want to fight, though.

Is saying that obviously most vets don't fit that description, for the simple fact that they were mostly unlucky Joes.

Business before real human lives right? We've lost the way long ago.

Radon said:

Business before real human lives right?

It's the way of the (dead eyed, passive agressive, irresponsible, and flat out evil) future! Get with the times, man!