[HN Gopher] What's behind those$15,000 electricity bills in Texas
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       What's behind those$15,000 electricity bills in Texas
        
       Author : ivanvanderbyl
       Score  : 8 points
       Date   : 2021-02-28 21:47 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (theconversation.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (theconversation.com)
        
       | gregw2 wrote:
       | Here's another paradox worth thinking about when trying to have
       | incentive-only regulations (carrots without sticks.)
       | 
       | You might think that higher rates would incent companies to
       | weatherize, but actually they perversely might reduce
       | incentives... if you owned 100 power plants, of which some will
       | work in an emergency and some won't, all you need is for the
       | fraction that are weatherized to get enough surplus revenues
       | during peak times to cover for the plants that are offline so
       | that your overall revenues are flat or slightly higher. Higher
       | electricity rates actually reduce your need to weatherize your
       | plants.
        
       | dccoolgai wrote:
       | The modern tragedy of government at any scale is the inability of
       | small-minded people to accept the fundamental paradox of
       | Capitalism: that it is _simultaneously_ the best system for
       | arbitration of price and one of the worst forms of government.
       | 
       | It is no accident that all the remaining first-world nations have
       | a very similar setup: a healthy free-market nucleus operating
       | inside of a strong pro-social shell.
        
         | redis_mlc wrote:
         | > It is no accident that all the remaining first-world nations
         | have a very similar setup: a healthy free-market nucleus
         | operating inside of a strong pro-social shell.
         | 
         | It depends how you define "first-world nation".
         | 
         | A lot of the EU members had to cook their books to gain
         | admittance, since they're close to being failed states
         | economically. Goldman Sachs made billions off creative
         | financing during their appication processes. (Germany's
         | reponses to EU bailout requests told volumes.)
         | 
         | So I don't lump the US into any group of other states since the
         | US has a real economy (at least before the 2020 election.)
         | 
         | Puerto Rico is a microcosm for how Europe ruined itself. The PR
         | governor said, "If I don't provide handouts, they won't vote
         | for me in the next election."
         | 
         | Admittedly, the US health care system is a failure in terms of
         | cost and access, so joining civilization in that respect makes
         | sense. It will take another doubling of premiums for widespread
         | support, so give it 24-36 months.
        
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       (page generated 2021-02-28 23:02 UTC)