Quote from HN user shingen, someone who has been hellbanned. I thought it was a valuable contribution to the discussion, so I reposted it here for people who do

Quote from HN user shingen, someone who has been hellbanned. I thought it was a valuable contribution to the discussion, so I reposted it here for people who don't have showdead on (or would like to save their eyes): Electricity isn't expensive, we have a government that tends to make everything extraordinarily expensive. Obama's trillion dollar stimulus shot could have built a hundred nuclear power plants in America. Or 50 plants, plus transmission to carry the juice. Except the runway from here to there is a minefield filled with lobbyist groups, endless regulatory hurdles, congressional reviews, lawsuits, etc. All of which are government failures tied to tort reform, lobbying reform, and bad regulations and bad processes related to regulation. The rest of the world thinks America is a joke when it comes to energy. Canada understands energy; China understands energy; Japan understands energy. We can't even build a simple pipeline - until the next week, when Obama goes from claiming he's a protector of the environment, to bragging he has built enough pipeline to circle the world. Canada and China look at this and laugh. http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/03/22/450397/obama-worst-.. http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/03/22/450397/obama-worst-.... I think it can easily be argued that America has the most ineffectual government among major economies. We spend the most, for the least results (which blankets most segments, including education).