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On an individual level, I agree with this sentiment. However, as power and influence increases, I feel, so too does accountability to the community. For examp
by Verdex 3y ago
On an individual level, I agree with this sentiment. However, as power and influence increases, I feel, so too does accountability to the community.
For example, if an individual wants to have christmas lights on their house year round, I think they should be allowed to as long as they can pay their electric bill. However, if a crazy billionaire wants to blast a giant laser into the sky and this causes brown outs due to the power draw to the surrounding community, then I think the community should be able to get the laser shut off. And on the other hand, if the billionaire runs a free entry water park and that causes brownouts, I think the community should be able to decide whether or not to flip the switch.
- personjerry 3y agoSo really it's taxing excessive electricity usage rather than targeting the motivation behind the usage?
- leetcrew 3y agoI'd rather see this mitigated with tiered kWh rates that are still use case agnostic. so the amount of energy needed to heat/cool a reasonable family home could be purchased roughly at production cost, but the rate could step up steeply past that amount. this would either discourage silly laser shows, or at least make sure the community gets funds to build out solar/wind/whatever from the show. if this approach also discourages free water parks, I'm okay with that. if the community really wants that, they can weigh it against other public interests and consider funding it out of public coffers.
- jrm4 3y agoAgain, I think that "generally, the government we have now" does as good or a better job of "what the community wants" than whatever it is you're proposing? Especially here? It's absolutely reasonable -- if not likely -- to think that "the community" thinks of bitcoin mining as a wasteful and stupid idea and is expressing that preference through its politicians. I don't think you're going to see a lot of arguments in terms of "this is political overreach."
- leetcrew 3y agoI honestly could not care less whether crypto mining is or is not a viable business. I don't do it myself, and I don't hold any crypto. I just hate to see yet random tax meant to appease people who are upset over this week's headline and will move on to being upset about something else next week. it's not an effective recipe for addressing actual root causes of problems. but yeah, I don't really expect anyone to care much about crypto bros getting a targeted shafting. dueling windmills would probably be a better use of my time.
- jrm4 3y agoYeah, I mean I think "proof of work" crypto is an easy target for an entirely appropriate reason; it's perfectly wasteful, even beyond eg ridiculous Christmas lights. And now that crypto has better "work functions" e.g. "proof-of-stake," there's just no reason to not tax this.