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Re:The Attack on Rooftop Solar Power in California Is Beyond... by blitzar on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @05:24PM (#29572372)
My black and white approach works just fine, I am more than happy to see the poor shareholders get fucked. Take away their monopoly and allow competition. It turns out it is already happening as community choice aggregators (CCAs) are all over the place and CEOs of companies with monopolies have proven worthy of their massive salaries by driving their business into bankrupcy.

There is a reason for governments to exist beyond writing and regulating the creation of monopolies for private citizens to get rich. The costs to amortize the initial construction can't just be waved away because they paid all the money out in dividends and executive bonuses. These companies raked in money in bucketloads, agressively wrote down the construction costs and still had money left over to pay fat dividends.

Re:The Attack on Rooftop Solar Power in California Is Beyond... by throwaway27727 on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @06:24PM (#29572842)
OP did say poor people, not poor shareholders. Those least likely to own solar panels, i.e. those with less wealth (don't own their own houses, can't afford the capital for installation) are the ones who bear the cost of higher power plant prices.
Re:The Attack on Rooftop Solar Power in California Is Beyond... by blitzar on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @06:48PM (#29573045)
Who spoke up for those people before the shareholders stopped getting their fat dividend? Nobody. Now that the big corporations (and their shareholders) are struggling the crys from the rooftop is "wont somebobdy think of the poor people".

How about putting back some of the excess profits from the monopoly that were taken every year till now?

Re:The Attack on Rooftop Solar Power in California Is Beyond... by horsawlarway on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @08:51PM (#29573920)
Utility pricing is one of the most regulated things in the country.

They don't "regulate the creation" of a monopoly for something like power - it's the definition of "natural monopoly". They regulate it so hard because capitalism DOES NOT WORK for this. Texas still tries it, and we're all seeing how well their underfunded, poorly maintained utilities blow up the second you get a slight perturbance in the natural order (ooops - hope joe blow likes his 16k power bill this month!)

Also - Even if you were to buy true off-grid solar and completely avoid the grid for your home, there is literally no way you are not taking advantage of power provided by the power companies. It's in your street lights, your cell towers, your stores, your gas stations, your schools/libraries/gov buildings. It's running the pumps for your sewers, the traffic lights for your roads, the signage at your DMV. It's EVERYWHERE - And you are using it.

So do I think this particular legislation is the right way to solve it? No - probably not. But I'm not an angry child who's unable to hold a real conversation around how we structure society.