Please seriously consider the following: Suppose you went food shopping 4-5 times per month (or whatever interval you normally shop) but only one thing was changed: None of the prices would be posted, and you only had a vague impression that steak was more expensive than hamburger; in fact, you wouldn't know the relative pricing of anything that you bought. At the end of the month, you would receive a bill from your grocery store that summarized your total spending for the month. You wouldn't know the percentage spent on meats, cheeses, milk, vegetables, fruits, bread, chips, salsa,...., anything! Nor would you care enough to change anything.
Sound absurd? Of course!
But that's almost EXACTLY what happens with your utility bill each month. The average utility spending per month is very roughly the same as the average grocery spending per month, but most consumers have no idea how much of it goes to lighting, heating, air conditioning, running a pool filter, powering the computers and TVs in the home, etc.
You probably know where to buy the cheapest gas in your neighborhood, you likely stay on top of the current gas pricing (within a few cents per gallon, or to about 1%). You probably know to 5% the cost of hamburger per pound, and that low fat hamburger is more expensive than high fat.
So we are essentially making bad economic decisions, based on little or no data, and poor consumer education. Think about it.
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