4 ms·
Things that have no price cannot be fairly allocated by a market system, and production cannot be reliably planned. Also, paying $0.10 per kWh makes us choose
by logfromblammo 7y ago
Things that have no price cannot be fairly allocated by a market system, and production cannot be reliably planned.
Also, paying $0.10 per kWh makes us choose between using an air conditioner to cool the interior of an occupied building to 20 degC, or wasting power on mining proof-of-work cryptocoins.
There may be a case for having the first N kWh of residential household use in a month be free, and metering the excess at a higher rate. If I got unlimited electricity at no cost, I, for one, would have an aluminum smelter in my back yard--right next to the Moon-etching laser, programmed to write "CHAIRFACE".
- anoncake 7y agoThe market system does not even try to fairly allocate anything. It allocates to those who can pay.
- logfromblammo 7y agoLet's forget about "fair" then, and focus on the allocation. Whether fair or not by someone's definition of "fair", the market system can allocate resources among uncountable federated actors, without spending a significant fraction of those resources on centralized calculations. A zero-price system cannot do that. There may exist theoretical alternate systems that can allocate more fairly than a market system. If one can do that with unmetered, no-additional-cost-to-the-consumer electricity, I'd be happy to hear about it, as I am not currently aware of any.
- anoncake 7y agoSure, right now unmetered electricity would be a bad idea.