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Now you have a choice between paying extortionate amounts of money for electric and ruining your largest asset, your house, and potentially ending up in hospita

• Wowfunhappy 6y ago
  But remember, there literally wasn't enough power to heat everyone's homes. In a simplified universe where everything is as described in an entry-level economics textbook, this variable pricing system saved everyone. People with health conditions or particularly valuable homes were willing to pay exorbitant electricity rates, everyone else turned off their power, and they all lived happily ever after. Real life, of course, is more complicated.
  • imtringued 6y ago
    Real life is more complicated, but people misunderstand where the complexity is hidden. The textbooks aren't wrong. The basic mechanics are sound. The worst part by far is that we can't expect everyone to understand how markets work. It's not just a matter of applying markets everywhere, it's a matter of understanding when markets are useful, when they have to be supported by fallbacks and when it makes sense to have no market at all. For example. There is a pretty basic assumption without which markets cannot function. That is the assumption that people actually know and compare prices instead of just buying things where they don't even know how much it costs. People don't spend their lives staring at wholesale electricity prices all day. What's needed are electronic devices that do this busywork for us. If each outlet had its own price sensitive breaker we could just set up some price caps on each outlet and disable nonessential devices or turn down the thermostat.