All the things less than my $75 monthly utility "facility fees"

So if you didn't read my last post, you don't know that I received my first power and water bill for my new place. I recently moved from a studio in an affluent area at $1100/mon to a 2bd/2ba townhouse in a rougher part of town two counties away.

Things are different here.
For one, the trash. There's just litter everywhere and something called "illegal dumping." Apparently where I live is outside the city limits so the town doesn't provide garbage pick up. Doy! People just dump trash wherever.  Behind the row of houses in front of mine there's about a dozen bags of trash and a mattress set.  I tried to notify the town, but they said it wasn't in their jurisdiction. That was the end of my citizenship policing.

I know there's not much I can do about it. So that's frustrating. But until that frustration dies down, I have fought all these mental wars. I thought about starting a Facebook page. I even tried calling the power company. Just a standard answer.  I tried being grateful. Nine hundred dollars a year ($900/yr) isn't that much to pay to have access to running water and electricity. Meh.

But on this FIRE journey, we talk so much about tracking your expenses and seeing where your money goes. So, I'm hyper aware of this new cost.

For a total bill of about $117, $75 was in fees (75/117 = 64%).

People complain so much about cell phone fees and surcharges and cable bills, but none are as high as this. So, my next thought was, what are all the things that cost less than $75/mon or $900/yr?

• My cell phone ($27/mon)
• Cable and internet ($71/mon)
• Actual energy usage ($35/mon avg)
• Actual water usage ($12/mon avg)
• Car insurance ($600/yr)
• Home owner's insurance ($564/yr)
• 1% Home maintenance fund ($770/yr)
• Flight to Ecuador ($600)

What about you? What expenses could you cover for less than $75/mon or $900/yr? 

What the power company is raking in. 

So Census.gov has quick facts. 

My county has about 147,000 housing units. If the Power Company were to charge each of them $900/yr, how much are they raking in in just fees? 

900 x 147,000 = $132,300,00

ONE HUNDRED THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR IN FEES!

Wow. 

So let's say I'm the median family in this county, making $45k gross. That means my net pay is about $36k/yr.  How much of that is spent just in power company fees? 

900/36,000 = 2.5%

And they wonder why the Average American doesn't have an emergency fund. I don't know about you, but if I'm a family making $45k/yr, $900 sure sounds like a cushy emergency fund! 

The part that just plays over in my mind, is in the wealthier town I came from, they're not subjected to these fees. So I'm paying 900x more a year in fees than my wealthier neighbors. How is that fair???