Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Not the only difference
Twitter item from a Californian:
Leaving my dark, cold house where my capitalist power company can’t keep the lights on to go pay full price for a prescription my capitalist insurance company refuses to cover. Tell me again how socialism is bad.
Well, capitalism vs socialism is exactly the problem in medical care for sure. But it's not the only problem with utilities. Before the privatizing fashion and the Enron laws of the '80s, electric utilities were either municipal ("socialist") or tightly regulated private. Power was more reliable and maintenance was better, BECAUSE IT HAD TO BE BETTER.
But the same comparison divides SHARE-VALUE capitalism from REAL-VALUE capitalism. The comparison shows up around here in the Valley, where SHARE-VALUE Avista covers some areas and REAL-VALUE Inland Power and Vera Power cover others.
Note the comments in this Spokane-News FB item about an Avista outage in the Valley. Inland and Vera customers smugly note that last night's brief and minor windstorm didn't knock out their power. They usually keep their power when Avista goes dark.
Real-value companies seek profit, which means they want live customers. A dead customer isn't paying. Share-value companies seek rising share value, which means they prefer dead customers. A dead customer is a burnt sacrifice to Gaia. A live customer is a NEGATIVE EXTERNALITY.
Labels: Constfucts and variables, Deadthink
¶ 5:56 AM
