The Real Cause of Blackouts

[Riddick]

Op-Ed here, cliff notes below:

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All last week, major parts of Queens, New York, were without electricity following a failure of power that plunged much of the city into darkness amidst sweltering heat for more than a week.


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What do the consumers do about it? They follow the news and keep paying the bills, to the same company that let them down. They can't switch. They can't influence the production process. They are powerless in more ways than one.


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Now, if markets were in charge, a heat wave would not be looked at as a problem but as an opportunity. Entrepreneurs would be swarming to meet demand, just as they do in every other sector that is controlled by markets. The power companies would be praying for heat waves!


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After all, do shoe manufacturers see a massive increase in footwear demand as a problem? Do fast food companies see lunchtime munchies as a terrible threat? On the contrary, these are profit opportunities.


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Then [after monopoly was coercively granted] the economists got involved ex post and declared that electrical power is a "public good," under the belief that private enterprise is not up to the job of providing the essentials of life.

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Competition would lead to price reductions, innovation, and an ever greater variety of services — the same as we find in the computer industry.


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