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The government has a couple of things that a startup doesn't: 1. The trust of the public. (This is essential for certifications.) 2. The ability to borrow at
by whatshisface 1y ago
The government has a couple of things that a startup doesn't:
1. The trust of the public. (This is essential for certifications.)
2. The ability to borrow at the lowest interest rate. (This is mainly due to the above.)
That makes spending to organize or coordinate the industry and the public a natural government activity.
- tomrod 1y agoAlso, provision of public goods.
- detourdog 1y agoOur New England town hall has on display the weights and scales that were used to regulate our local trade. Measuring energy usage seems like a natural expansion of this role. Even the empire had Imperial Bureau of Standards.
- anonym29 1y agoEnergy Star didn't only measure energy usage, it restricted freedom of trade between what were otherwise two parties voluntarily engaging in trade with no fraud, coercion, or deceit. Poor analogy.
- detourdog 1y agoI would need more information on the restriction of trade.
- tomrod 1y agoIt can't be provided since it is fake.
- margalabargala 1y agoEnergy Star is an entirely voluntary program. It restricted nothing.
- newsclues 1y agoThe trust is the energy star brand, not the organization that owns it. Also parts of the public do not trust government. Not sure why a long running and effective program needs government to borrow money, especially if industry finds the program valuable (enough to fund). I’m fine with government starting programs like this, but think they should eventually be divested and run as self sufficient organizations and not constantly be a drain on the taxpayer.
- whatshisface 1y agoWhy would anyone trust the EnergyStar trademark if it had been sold to an entity that was not trusted?
- margalabargala 1y agoEvery dollar spent on Energy Star yielded about $340 of consumer savings. How is this a "drain"?
- anonym29 1y agoThe government does not have the trust of the public. Presidential approval ratings in recent administrations have been under 50% on both sides of the aisle and Congress is even lower than that. If anything, distrust of government is nearly a core value inherent to being an American, again - regardless of which side you're on. Stonewall, George Floyd Protests, and Jan 6 were all protests against government, and they're all progress compared to the past, when these tensions would have instead started armed conflicts, like the anti-government sentiment that started both the revolutionary war and the civil war.
- wildzzz 1y agoPresidential approval ratings have little to do with the public's approval of the bureaucracy that sits in the background, quietly making their lives better
- anonym29 1y agoYou're of the opinion that the public's approval of the bureaucracy is higher, rather than lower? president > congress > nameless, faceless bureaucracy