-Caveat Lector-
"M.A. Johnson" wrote:
>
> -Caveat Lector-
>
> At 09:41 PM 1/19/01 -0500, you wrote:
> >-Caveat Lector-
> >
> >************************************************************************
> >"Why is California short on Electricity ?
>
> You should TRULY learn the fucking difference between
> PRIVATE and GOVERNMENT.
>
You should TRULY learn to live in the real world. Your ideology is
ridiculous and so are you. This crisis got out of hand because of
deregulation. It was deregulated because businessmen run the politicians.
The results are PRIMARILY because the producers are either causing or
exacerbating the ' shortage.' That's what happens when you let businessmen
control prices.
There is NO REASON WHATSOEVER, why anything as vital as electric power
should be bought and sold on the " free market " as if it were a commodity
like shoes.
> California's Enemy: The State
> by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
>
> California is a beautiful state with a (mostly) mild,
> sunny climate, which is one reason why so many people
> live there. But who would want to move there, it is
> often asked, if one had to endure chronic water
> shortages, earthquakes and now, "rolling
> blackouts?" These events are typically blamed on either
> Mother Nature or the free market, but in reality they are
> either caused or exacerbated by government regulation.
Possibly. But these conditions DIDN'T EXIST when electricity
was highly regulated by the state.
>
> California's politicians have been quick to blame
> the current electricity "shortages" on "deregulation"
> when in fact the opposite is true: Although wholesale
> electricity prices have been deregulated, retail prices
> have not, and regulation has all but prohibited the
> building of additional electricity supply capacity.
Only certain kinds of capacity. The polluting kinds which are most
profitable for producers and whose external costs are borne by the
state and its population. This is the free market no one will tolerate
anymore.
>
> The population has doubled in the past ten years, which
> has caused about a one-third increase in electricity
> demand, whereas supply has remained stagnant thanks
> to the environmentalist extremists in the state
> government. These neo-luddites have blocked nuclear
> power plant construction; they have vetoed the building
> of additional dams for hyrdoelectric power (lest some
> aquatic creepy crawlers be disturbed); and are nearly
> apoplectic in their opposition to coal- or natural
> gas-fired electric power plants.
Excellent! I guess they'll have to try something else won't they?
>
> Ballooning demand, restricted supply, and price
> controls are a perfect recipe for shortages. Complete
> deregulation of the electric power industry is the only
> way to resolve this problem,
Yeah, yeah. That's the solution. That's like telling a snakebite
victim that only getting bitten a few more times will save him.
How twisted does a true believer have to be to make a proclamation
like that and believe it. This guy is pathetic.
> although California's
> governor is currently proposing the worst of all
> worlds: a Soviet-style government takeover of
> the state's electric power industry.
And this case will be a practical lesson for the rest of the country.
VITAL NECESSITIES DON'T BELONG IN THE ' FREE MARKET ' ! They should
be controlled by people who DON'T personally benefit from rising prices.
The consumers.
>
> California's periodic water "crisis" is another
> unnatural disaster caused by government regulation.
Not exactly. The crisis exists because there are too many
people living where they don't belong. The desert has become
overpopulated with people who want to reproduce the wetter
climes they come from. Golf courses, lawns, car washes, and
corporate monoculture don't belong in a desert.
> The big problem is that most of the water in the state
> has been regulated for decades by the Federal Bureau
> of Reclamation, which heavily subsidizes the irrigation
> which delivers water from the northern part of the
> state to the bone-dry southern part. (Seventy-five
> percent of the water comes from the north, whereas
> 75 percent of the population is in the southern half
> of the state).
So far so good.
>
> Some 85 percent of the water is used for agriculture
> and is sold at government-imposed, below-market
> prices. Some farmers pay as little as $3.50 per
> acre foot for water that costs $100 per acre foot
> just to pump through the government-run irrigation
> system.
Corporate welfare.
> At these prices it is "economical" to grow
> cotton and rice in the desert, even though the
> Mississippi Delta and the rice paddies of Vietnam
> are more natural habitats for these crops.
> California grows prodigious amounts of both.
Very good.
>
> Government-subsidized water use for one purpose
> alone -- irrigating pastures for grazing sheep -- exceeds
> the water used for all other purposes in California,
> residential and industrial. In one recent year $530
> million in taxpayer dollars were spent on pumping this
> water to sheep ranchers when the gross revenues of
> the sheep ranching industry in that year were less
> than one-fifth of that amount, $100 million.
Hey that's capitalism for you.
>
> Meanwhile, cities throughout the state suffer such
> severe "water shortages" from time to time that
> government toilet monitors have been employed to
> enforce three-flushes-a-day regulations. (I am
> not making this up).
And THAT is what happens in a capitalist society. The citizen
is expected to bear the consequences so that businessmen can
continue making profits. After all, " The business of America
is business."
>
> The Federal Bureau of Reclamation's crazy central
> planning scheme is the main cause of California's
> periodic water supply crises. As with electricity,
> only a free market in water can put an end to the
> insanity.
Lunatic bastard. Put electricity AND water into the hands of
greedy oinkers. This happened recently in Bolivia. The people
REVOLTED when water prices skyrocketed. They threw out the
government which ok'd the deal. They should have caught and
hanged the businessmen and the politicians who tried to enslave
them. At some point this will happen.
>
> Even California earthquakes would not be as devastating
> were it not for government regulation. Federal disaster
> insurance allows residents to purchase homeowners'
> insurance at subsidized rates, sometimes at one-tenth
> the free-market price. Federal disaster insurance is
> sold where no private insurer would even consider it,
> such as insuring houses built on top of earthquake
> faults or on the edges of muddy cliffs overlooking the
> ocean. The government is subsidizing the building of
> houses that are sure to be destroyed by earthquakes
> and winter storms.
Good point! The way I see it though, is that ALL insurance
should be bought from the government EXCEPT high risk insurance
which could be purchased from private insurers.
>
> Government building code regulation also has a tendency
> to encourage builders to meet the minimum requirements
> set by government, but no more.
And which private industry bribes the government to do that?
Hmmmmmmnnnn. Could it be the building industry?
> Alternatively, if
> private insurance markets were used to assure building
> safety, standards would be much higher, and earthquake
> damage less severe. And, of course, a notorious source
> of governmental bribery and corruption would be eliminated.
>
> The millionaire socialists from Hollywood who pour
> millions into state political campaign coffers are
> largely isolated from all these disasters. They live
> in mansions far away from earthquake faults; the lights
> are never turned off in their neighborhoods; and they
> have enough political clout to buy all the water they
> need. It will take a popular free-market revolt, along
> the lines of the infamous "Proposition 13" tax relief
> crusade of the late 1970s, to eliminate the state's
> chaos-causing regulatory regime.
Dream on asshole. This little adventure in La La Land will
kill the absurd and vile lie that free markets are good for
anything besides starting up small businesses, and making the
ultra greedy, ultra rich.
The end is nigh. After California, Russia, Indonesia, Argentina,
Bolivia, and even Red China, no one will automatically
presume that business is better than government at giving people
what they need at a fair price. Just watch what happens as this
administration tries to push this old crap from the Reagan era.
The world can't afford the " free market " any more. Libertarians
and other oinkers will have to sell their non-sense on other planets
where there are more resources and fewer people. Try Uranus.
Joshua2
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