boy oh boy
the capitalist system is just not the way to go. how can the market take care of everything when it ascribes zero value to social welfare. a bunch of people acting in their private interest does not add up to the best thing for everyone. the thinking of it is all fucked up. all this is not to even approach the point that real-world actors don't act like economics says they will.
so because of all these fucked up problems with the capitalist system, there are all these problems with no good solution. energy efficiency, for example. now energy utilities are already pretty heavily regulated, but i'm gonna ignore that for the sake of argument.
so energy effeciency is good for society at large. it means you get more energy from the same amount of fuel input, which means less pollution, less waste, less resource exploitation, and probably cheaper energy, among many other things (freedom from wars for oil maybe?)
but here's the thing: an energy company is going to basically make more money the more energy it sells. and although this may encourage more effeciency on the supply side by the people generating it, the power company actually has a disincentive to promote efficiency on the demand side, in people's homes and businesses. Customers with ineffecient refrigerators and insulation mean more money for the power companies. And the customers themselves just don't generally make wise enough economic decisions to cause major increases in effeciency. they just want to buy which ever fridge costs less at the store.
a situation like this is exactly where you need some serious state authority to step in. what is so terrible about a social state? people don't benefit from capitalism. large businesses do. and they don't want what's best for the people. why not just turn certain industries over to the government and tax the hell out of the ones left and then take care of the people for christsake. i mean, I know there are some constitutional problems with government just taking people's property, but there are ways around that. and you would have to compensate the companies for anything you did take, but then you could tax the hell out of that, too.
i didn't and don't intend on getting bogged down in details and technicalities. my point is, isn't there a much better way?
and when will this country start doing it?
the capitalist system is just not the way to go. how can the market take care of everything when it ascribes zero value to social welfare. a bunch of people acting in their private interest does not add up to the best thing for everyone. the thinking of it is all fucked up. all this is not to even approach the point that real-world actors don't act like economics says they will.
so because of all these fucked up problems with the capitalist system, there are all these problems with no good solution. energy efficiency, for example. now energy utilities are already pretty heavily regulated, but i'm gonna ignore that for the sake of argument.
so energy effeciency is good for society at large. it means you get more energy from the same amount of fuel input, which means less pollution, less waste, less resource exploitation, and probably cheaper energy, among many other things (freedom from wars for oil maybe?)
but here's the thing: an energy company is going to basically make more money the more energy it sells. and although this may encourage more effeciency on the supply side by the people generating it, the power company actually has a disincentive to promote efficiency on the demand side, in people's homes and businesses. Customers with ineffecient refrigerators and insulation mean more money for the power companies. And the customers themselves just don't generally make wise enough economic decisions to cause major increases in effeciency. they just want to buy which ever fridge costs less at the store.
a situation like this is exactly where you need some serious state authority to step in. what is so terrible about a social state? people don't benefit from capitalism. large businesses do. and they don't want what's best for the people. why not just turn certain industries over to the government and tax the hell out of the ones left and then take care of the people for christsake. i mean, I know there are some constitutional problems with government just taking people's property, but there are ways around that. and you would have to compensate the companies for anything you did take, but then you could tax the hell out of that, too.
i didn't and don't intend on getting bogged down in details and technicalities. my point is, isn't there a much better way?
and when will this country start doing it?