People Had to Be Convinced of the Usefulness of Electricity

Re:People Had to Be Convinced of the Usefulness of Electricity by photochemsyn on Sunday March 19, 2023 @02:07PM (#35221789)

I wouldn't say infrastructure is worthless, more that infrastructure creates new market opportunities, and without it, markets just won't function well. For example, good roads allow farmers to transport their produce to distant markets in all weather conditions, good electricity distribution means farmers start buying washing machines, better broadband means rural people might start buying online services and so on.

Trying to game basic infrastructure for profits runs counter to this notion, and it's thus an area of the economy where government management makes the most sense.

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Re:People Had to Be Convinced of the Usefulness of Electricity by hyperthesis on Sunday March 19, 2023 @04:03PM (#35222959)

Applications are infrastructure's value - without produce to transport (or other applications), what value roads? Infrastructure is means to application ends.

So yes, given benefiting applications, infrastructure improvements derive value.

Their value is entirely derived. They have no intrinsic value. They are, in themselves, worthless.

Just semantics.

I tend to agree with your take on public infrastructure, but I haven't thought about it enough to form a definite opinion.

\tangentially related: arguing metabolism pathways need to exist before genes can improve them https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-biochemists-view-of-lifes-o...

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