This morning's Statesman disclosed -- "outed" might be the better word -- Austin's 10 most profligate water users. Lance Armstrong sits at the top of the list.
I imagine this public shaming will get them to cut down on their water use. It may also discourage other big users to cut down, too, since they may worry about ending up on the list. That's far from certain, though.
For someone with a valuable public image like Armstrong, the humiliation of topping the list is more costly than any increase in the price of water. But I'm sure there are hundreds of people just below the top ten who collectively use 100 or 1000 times as much water as the top 10. If we priced water properly -- if the top few hundred were paying $3,000-5,000 per month rather than $500 per month -- we could guarantee water reductions while bolstering the city's balance sheet.
Moral sanctions work best in small communities where people know each other. Austin is too big for the Scarlet Letter approach to work in the long run.
Update: Shilli's post at Austinist is better.
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