Save Power!

Save power - turn off all the TVs at peak usage time (6pm-8pm).
If you don't, we could have power failures!

How refreshing if that were the message to New Zealanders. Turn off the box that doesn't actually do anything useful (like a drier dries clothes that might otherwise not get dried or a dishwasher washes dishes). All the TV does is blare out ads and mindless entertainment that we can all do without, especially at peak time when everyone ought to be spending the early evenings with their families, cooking and eating dinner and just generally catching up on the day.

But no, instead the front page of the Dom Post today has an article that specifies that people should not turn on their driers and dishwashers until later in the evening, to take the load off peak time electricity usage.

Excuse me, but what about the elephant in the room? Or do people turn everything else off, except the TV, when there are threatened power failures?

I suppose if the TV was off people might actually lose their addiction to it. Can have that - how would the authorities tell people what to do if not for the box?