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gordonglover t1_j8n0xvs wrote

Real tired of these monopolies in my Commonwealth.

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Daddygamer84 t1_j8na0gh wrote

Real tired of these monopolies in my Commonwealth Country

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ftfy

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cleverocks t1_j8nn7ie wrote

Go further: World

Then suggest an alternative that works.

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khuldrim t1_j8ppotz wrote

Nationalize them. The power grid is part and parrtial with national security and shouldn’t be up to the whims of profit seeking enterprise.

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cleverocks t1_j8pqg0j wrote

Sadly that wouldn’t work. Politicians get in the way. Look at the Post Office.

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goodsam2 t1_j8os6ff wrote

The problem is that electricity is a natural monopoly which means it will basically always be a monopoly so the options are since the cost is too much for their to be naturally competing wires to your house:

  1. have it be a state agency

  2. have it be a monopoly but heavily regulate it

  3. Have it be a Texas style market that guarantees access to the monopoly piece of the physical wires. Which has lead them to basically running out of energy how many times...

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STREAMOFCONSCIOUSN3S t1_j8nt6f1 wrote

Is there anywhere in the world that has competing electricity providers?

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ManBMitt t1_j8o1y31 wrote

Different states have different levels of competition. Virginia is one of the least-competitive states, while Texas is one of the most competitive (and we see how well that has worked out for them).

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goodsam2 t1_j8ormei wrote

Texas.

They have a market that guarantees access to the lines, but privatizes it otherwise.

That's why they keep having power outages the basic theory was that if you could provide power during a very cold time then you would make more money... Turns out the model doesn't work.

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plummbob t1_j8pkepa wrote

There is alot variation in electric retail markets, Texas has the most expansive retail competition. Comparing Texas and California retail markets is an interesting case study in market design -- with California creating some counter-productive incentives that led to the 2001 outages, Enron and all that.

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turnipmeatloaf t1_j8oxv89 wrote

Because of their high fixed capital costs, utilities are considered natural monopolies by economists because it would be prohibitively expensive to have multiple companies serving the same area, similarly to roads. Monopolies are fine is well regulated by the state and if regulatory capture is successfully prevented. Otherwise, we need co-ops or nationalization

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