7 ms·

While I'm concerned about the environmental challenges of reversing the trend and increasing energy consumption, I'm happy that people are living in more comfor

• gtirloni 9mo ago
  Forgot /s
  • le-mark 9mo ago
    That’s what I was thinking, clearly sarcasm because none of that is true.
• justin66 9mo ago
  Better: advertising!
• b65e8bee43c2ed0 9mo ago
  the US is not a planned economy. if it was, computers would exist only to guide missiles and operate industrial machinery, and you would be mining coal, farming wheat, or manning an assembly line for a living.
  • Fraterkes 9mo ago
    …and I wouldn’t have to read this kind of drivel. Sounds like a blessing.
  • echelon 9mo ago
    Some of the economy should be encouraged with heavy subsidy or though DoD purchases. It's worked out well for us in the past. Wind and solar, nuclear, EVs, manufacturing, robots, chips, and drones should be helped along by the state. We would be stupid not to spend in these categories. We should also build out chemical inputs manufacture, rare earths refining, pharmaceutical manufacture, etc. to support the work that happens downstream and to be less fragile to supply chain disruption. A multi-polar world is inherently less stable and demands more self-sufficiency.
  • gchamonlive 9mo ago
    Its not a planned economy by the government, because the US is an oligarchy. The billionaires are deciding how the government should plan investments in infrastructure and social policies. They have been able to lower the taxes that affect the richest (big beautiful bill) and cut spending on social programs (Medicaid). So it surely looks to me like the US economy is following a plan, just not the one that's in the best interest of the population -- which is OP's original criticism.
    • stevenwoo 9mo ago
      The available selection of automobiles available for sale feels like a good example of huge distortion caused by regulatory capture and tariffs imposed for same industries.
      • asdff 9mo ago
        Yup take the ford lightning f150. It out sold cybertruck but that wasn’t enough for ford to keep it around. Market makes decisions for you, not the other way around like free market theory posits.
    • gruez 9mo ago
      >Its not a planned economy by the government This just seems like a quibble over wording, given that "planned economy" is generally assumed to refer to economic planning by some governmental authority. Nobody thinks the opposite of a "planned economy" is everyone just going based off vibes, for instance.
  • wasabi991011 9mo ago
    > China is not a planned economy. If it was, recent electric vehicles and battery technology would exist only to guide missiles and operate industrial machinery...
  • PeakKS 9mo ago
    It is now, haven't you heard? Computers are reserved for LLMs only.
  • asdff 9mo ago
    The US was a planned economy during wwii fwiw
• setgree 9mo ago
  We are indeed living in more comfortable homes. Americans are migrating to the sunbelt because of ample AC in the summer and the winters are pleasant. that’s a big part of why we have many fewer heat deaths per capita than Europe: https://www.thetimes-tribune.com/2025/08/02/opinion-us-heat-death-prevention/ https://www.thetimes-tribune.com/2025/08/02/opinion-us-heat-...
  • Aurornis 9mo ago
    You don’t realize how nice it is to live and work in air conditioned spaces until visiting a part of Europe where AC is viewed with disdain for reasons I still don’t understand. Also the move to electric heat pumps is increasing electricity rates but reducing natural gas usage and improving overall efficient. The GP comment was trying to do snarky doomerism but accidentally hit upon a lot of truths. It’s amazing how many things are getting better but some people are hell bent on being cynical about it anyway.
    • some-guy 9mo ago
      I’m not from Europe but those sentiments I think are changing with the recent intensity and frequency of heat waves.
    • buckle8017 9mo ago
      > You don’t realize how nice it is to live and work in air conditioned spaces until visiting a part of Europe where AC is viewed with disdain for reasons I still don’t understand. Most of Europe is poor. AC is expensive. It's actually that simple. There's AC in Switzerland.
      • Leherenn 9mo ago
        > There's AC in Switzerland. Not at all, it has one of the lowest rate in Europe along with the UK. It's very hard to get the building permit required to install one. Portable AC has had a boom those past few years though (because it doesn't require a permit).
      • 9mo ago
• trollbridge 9mo ago
  I spoke with two working class people last week who are facing power shutoffs because they got an unexpected $700 power bill. Not sure if it were a sneaky electricity supplier change or if costs have simply gone up. But the problem of consumer rates just always ratcheting up needs addressed.
  • blitzar 9mo ago
    Prices only go one way. Without inflation, debt has to be repaid in more expensive $'s than it was created in and the whole system goes boom.
  • Aurornis 9mo ago
    Electricity prices are heavily regulated. The largest increase I can find from a short search is around 20% for some customers in New Jersey. The average year over year increase is closer to 6% Unexpectedly high electricity bills are almost always from actual usage. Unexpectedly high winter electricity bills are usually from resistive electric heating in one way or another. You didn’t mention their normal December bill in this exact house, which is an important piece of information.
    • seanmcdirmid 9mo ago
      Texas is really different, it could be from there.
    • reylas 9mo ago
      You are part of the PJM. Read into what the "Fuel Adjustment" actually is. Yes, prices are regulated, but if your area is short of power, they can buy it from the PJM, usually from other sources they own, at "market" rate not regulated rate. The Fuel Adjustment is the legal loophole difference in the regulated rate vs the market rate. A few scheduled maintenance windows and oh look, we are short power.
    • trollbridge 9mo ago
      One of the families mentioned heats their home with natural gas. I suspect they got slammed with an alternative energy supplier that charges abusively high rates. With that said, the total cost to the consumer of electricity is 3X what it was 20 years ago, and I am in one of the cheapest markets.
• blell 9mo ago
  It’s a political imperative to get rid of everybody who thinks increasing energy consumption is a bad thing.
• Aurornis 9mo ago
  There is a push to switch from fossil fuel to electricity across the board, and that’s a good thing. Cars are the big one. However even heating is going electric (heat pumps, not resistive). Induction stovetops outperform residential gas cooktops. Some cities are even experimenting with phasing out natural gas hookups for new construction. It all adds up, and it a good thing. It doesn’t explain 100% of the growth but it’s a lot of it. > Amercian industrial base is being restored, that more and better services are being provided (better healthcare, inexpensive and healthy food, comfortable, efficient and inexpensive transportation). Trying to put concepts like “better healthcare” on to the growth of electricity demand is unrealistic but generally speaking we’re putting electricity to good use. It’s not being wasted.
  • slashdev 9mo ago
    In Vancouver, Canada natural gas was completely phased out as of the beginning of 2025 in most new construction.
    • seanmcdirmid 9mo ago
      What is NG good for? Induction cook tops perform better than gas ones, heat pumps do better than gas heaters. The only gap I can think of are just in time hot water heaters.
      • tastyfreeze 9mo ago
        Gas cooktops are good for still being able to cook when the power is out.
        • microtonal 9mo ago
          I am not sure where you live, but I cannot remember the last time our power went out (Western Europe). I have gas-cooked since I was a kid (living in an area with a lot of natural gas, so houses were connected to gas since the 50ies), but induction is so much nicer that I'm happy to not be able to cook during a once in a ~10-20 year outage. Also a lot safer (it still happens quite frequently that a house blows up because of a gas leak, just this week there was a huge explosion in Utrecht what was presumably a gas leak). Of course, the equation may change for countries with less stable power.
• andsoitis 9mo ago
  > That is what we're using this electricity for, right? Yes, amongst others. > increasing energy consumption, I'm happy that people are living in more comfortable homes, that the Amercian industrial base is being restored, that more and better services are being provided (better healthcare, inexpensive and healthy food, comfortable, efficient and inexpensive transportation). Over the last 25 years, we've the seen the following change across the dimensions you picked: Energy consumption: +15% Population: +21% Hospitals (hospital sector size as a function using employment as proxy): +45-50% Homes: +27-30% Food production: +23-25% Transportation (vehicle miles travelled): +14-16% ------ Some take-aways: Population grew faster than energy and transportation, implying major efficiency gains. Housing stock outpaced population, reflecting smaller household sizes and more single-person households. Healthcare expanded far faster than population, a structural shift rather than demographic necessity. Food production grew roughly in line with population, but without proportional land expansion productivity gains. Transportation growth lagged housing growth, suggesting more remote work, urbanization, and efficiency.
  • wasabi991011 9mo ago
    You have a lot of assumptions in your takeaways. > Housing stock outpaced population, reflecting smaller household sizes and more single-person households. Or rich people owning more vacation homes. > Healthcare expanded far faster than population, a structural shift rather than demographic necessity. What? It could easily be the population getting older and/or sicker. Even if it was a structural shift, it could be in the negative direction ie less efficiency. > Food production grew roughly in line with population, but without proportional land expansion productivity gains. What land expansion? You didn't include that in your stats. And no source to verify.
    • zer00eyz 9mo ago
      > Or rich people owning more vacation homes. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RSAHORUSQ156S https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RSAHORUSQ156S Home ownership rates have a 6 percent variance over the last ~50 years. We dont have a housing problem in America, we have a utilization problem: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/06/more-than-a-quarter-all-households-have-one-person.html https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/06/more-than-a-q... as an example. There is a conversation that needs to be had about housing, but no one is going to LIKE the medicine that comes with that.
• pton_xd 9mo ago
  > That is what we're using this electricity for, right? Ok, I'll say it: it's for AI datacenters to train chat bots.
  • spwa4 9mo ago
    You know, we don't have any choice! We need more power. It's getting so tough to get something to tell Trump he isn't totally fucking up America.
• browningstreet 9mo ago
  I’m guessing there’s a strong “/S” after this post..
• njarboe 9mo ago
  Why are you against increasing energy consumption? Increasing energy consumption is what pulled the world out of the feudal, warlord misery of the past. Maybe switch the focus of this feeling towards being against pollution or something that is a negative. Just being against energy consumption is quite regressive and anti-human.
  • seydor 9mo ago
    And slavery is what pushed certain empires and colonies to riches, that doesn't mean we keep doing it forever expecting positive returns
    • mritterhoff 9mo ago
      Moving electrons around isn't inherently immoral like slavery is. It's odd to compare the two!
  • fulafel 9mo ago
    To mitigate the ongoing climate catastrophe we must ramp down fossil fuels use and production. As long as there's fossil fuels in the electricity production mix, electricity use is contributes to the problem. This report tells us that fossil energy use is increasing as only 60% of the increase was covered by solar.
    • njarboe 9mo ago
      The world would much more easily transition to post fossil fuel if all of society was pushing for cleaner and cheaper electricity and a philosophy of using more to make life better. The attitude that we must reduce is just anti-progress and anti-human and is what many people are fighting against when they support more fossil fuels. The split of solar and wind being supported by the reduce camp and fossil fuel use into the growth mindset was a great tragedy.
      • fulafel 9mo ago
        Accelerating fossil fuel usage and while adding renewables to the mix is not going to pan out well. Accelerating the climate catastrophe is not pro-human. It might be pro-progress for some definition I guess if you don't mind the death toll.
• mmooss 9mo ago
  Is that sarcastic? I'm not sure. Healthcare, food, transportation, and housing are becoming much more expensive and less affordable.