Re:It’s cheaper because we pass the risk on to you
by danaris on Monday February 22, 2021 @10:17AM
(#26225470)
> It's perfectly possible to build a market system in which providers aren't incentivized to do stupid things like this.
A market system, yes.
But not a "free market" system in the sense that most libertarian-leaning people mean, where the government just stands aside and lets businesses do as they will.
In order for a market system to approximate the ideal free market in a situation like this, there needs to be a boatload of different kinds of regulation on it. Externalities would need to be priced in, all possible costs would need to be clearly disclosed, and many varieties of corner-cutting would have to be prohibited.
Even then, it is, in fact, absolutely impossible for electricity to be a genuine free market, just as it is with health care: Both are absolutely essential and time-critical, at least at certain times, which makes shopping around impossible (for health care because you can't shop around while unconscious, even if you did have a fancy phone app to make it nearly instantaneous, and for electricity because when a massive cold snap comes and your choices are "pay for electricity or freeze to death", it's not possible to switch electricity providers on short notice).
A market system, yes.
But not a "free market" system in the sense that most libertarian-leaning people mean, where the government just stands aside and lets businesses do as they will.
In order for a market system to approximate the ideal free market in a situation like this, there needs to be a boatload of different kinds of regulation on it. Externalities would need to be priced in, all possible costs would need to be clearly disclosed, and many varieties of corner-cutting would have to be prohibited.
Even then, it is, in fact, absolutely impossible for electricity to be a genuine free market, just as it is with health care: Both are absolutely essential and time-critical, at least at certain times, which makes shopping around impossible (for health care because you can't shop around while unconscious, even if you did have a fancy phone app to make it nearly instantaneous, and for electricity because when a massive cold snap comes and your choices are "pay for electricity or freeze to death", it's not possible to switch electricity providers on short notice).