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The point also ignores the power of network effects -- certain industries are prone to monopoly. It is only natural that government oversight of these natural m
by CameronNemo 7y ago
The point also ignores the power of network effects -- certain industries are prone to monopoly. It is only natural that government oversight of these natural monopolies follows.
- twblalock 7y agoThe problem is, the government always steps in and grants a monopoly before a natural monopoly develops by itself, thereby creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Maybe a natural monopoly would not have developed statewide. Maybe the government makes a bad situation worse by picking the wrong winner before the market decides. Maybe the government should allow competition if cities and/or private businesses are willing to give it a shot -- it works pretty well where I live.
- CameronNemo 7y agoI agree that municipalities should be given latitude to attempt to replace statewide utilities. But they should have some quality standards -- you would not want a rinky dink WISP with an invisible privacy record managing the internet access for schoolchildren.
- mindslight 7y agoEven taking it as a given that last-mile power distribution tends towards a natural monopoly for every neighborhood, this still doesn't mean that this monopoly needs to be agglomerated across such a wide area. This overt dereliction can only come from an entity that is "too big too fail". If this were one or two cities' local power companies, it would not be national news. Residents of those communities would be showing up at city meetings going "wtf", and could easily point at adjacent communities not doing such things as a reference.
- closeparen 7y agoThe government made it clear that PG&E will be harshly punished for operating in high fire danger conditions, and so PG&E is not operating in high fire danger conditions. This outcome is exactly how government oversight is supposed to work.
- mschuster91 7y agoNo, the expected outcome is PG&E hiring enough staff to properly maintain their lines and equipment to operate safely in high danger condition.
- bzbarsky 7y agoThey're in bankruptcy proceedings, no? Hiring more staff in that situation might be difficult. This is really a situation where bad incentives were created (because as far as I can tell the California state government is pretty bad at doing good incentives in general) and then people are surprised when they lead to bad behavior...
- CameronNemo 7y agoThey managed to find funds for PR staff and ad campaigns.
- closeparen 7y agoWe took all their money. That’s not a thing you do when you want to see investment.