Politics Out of Power Now

For some time, a radical element of Southern California's Hispanic community has made the proposition that California be "given back" to Mexico. Without examination of the validity of that claim, the supernatural stupidity of the California state government and our major media outlets makes one wonder if in fact Mexico might take better care of the territory.

Once again, California's citizens are facing rolling blackouts, the State government is threatening theft of private property (taking over powerplants through "eminent domain"), and the media is parroting the State's news conferences in content and language. The pattern appears unbreakable. They're blaming "deregulation" for our "power woes." Which is something like blaming capitalism for the poverty of the North Korean people.

The best analogy I can think of for California's "deregulation experiment" is a group of legislators coming across a man bound hand and foot, hogtied, blindfolded, with plugs in his ears and duct tape over his mouth. After several hours of discussion, they come up with a plan. They remove the earplugs and then dance around shouting "we have freed this man!"

Some time later, they realize that the man is not moving or saying anything, so they begin to debate anew. "Perhaps we should put the earplugs back in?" suggests one. "Well," another pipes up, "if we cut off his legs at the ankles, the hogties is no longer an issue."

Obviously, no one in the state government or news media bothered to attend Economics classes when they went to college. It's too bad, really, because the solution is so blasted obvious that anyone in the State government who took an economics class and isn't talking about it is criminally irresponsible.

If we had deregulated consumer prices, this would not have happened. We have plenty of power, but since it's artificially cheap, we use more of it. So the obvious alternative to the State shutting down people's power randomly is allowing people to buy the power they want or need. There is no need for rolling blackouts except as a political tool to convince the unaware that more State authority is the solution.

Ladies and gentlemen, those of you who haven't "got it" yet, this is a fundraiser. As Harry Browne is fond of saying, the State has broken the legs of the power industry in California and is now attempting to foist crutches upon them so that it can claim credit for the solution to a problem that would not exist but for its machinations. These Soviet-style shortages (rolling blackouts) are the result of a policy more designed to increase the State's power than to actually "provide" power to anyone.

This is, of course, the natural result of politicizing an industry. Some blame PG&E or Southern California Edison for "gouging." This is an amusing concept, since they have exactly zero control over either their costs or their prices. Some people blame the out-of-state power suppliers for "gouging," despite the fact that they are just responding to the bizarre market distortions introduced by the state, such as the inability to make long-term contracts and the inability of their customers to pay them because their income is strictly limited.

There is something we can blame them for, however. They chose to accept this mad scheme and allow the State to politicize and control their market. But most at fault here, of course, are "we the people." The people who sit by and do nothing, the people who allow themselves to be distracted by the politicians and their shell games. Solar power is irrelevant. Conservation drives are irrelevant. The power companies are, frankly, also irrelevant. Our problem is political control, and that political control has created this power problem.

The consumer groups are rabidly accusing power companies of terrorism and encouraging the Governor to use the National Guard to intimidate the power companies into selling their assets (thus removing their ability to do business), and lower their prices (thus putting themselves the rest of the way out of business). This would also have the effect of establishing California as an official police state. Papers, please? House-to-house searches for generators?

Have no doubts, those making these suggestions (using the military to forcibly control industry) are Fascists, in the most basic way. They are arrogant, self-righteous, power-mad control freaks. The so-called consumer groups here in California are seperated from Nazi Germany only by racial rhetoric and fashion sense.

After what happened in the last round, my advice to the power company owners would be to lock the doors and leave the State, and possibly the country. That would be a very hard thing to do, of course, and won't happen. No, eventually the politicians will wrangle out a temporary deal which will cede even more power to the State, which it will use in traditional fashion. I only hope I will have moved to another State before they finally destroy our entire power grid through their centrally-planned madness.

The long term solution is to unplug the State's control over the electricity market in California. It will be uncomfortable for a while as California consumers become accustomed to the Real World, but, if you want to play in the Real World, you have to learn Real World moves.

The only other choice is to give them more power to steal from the producers. Of course, as we've seen, they have nothing left to steal, and so we are at the end of that road.

Let's hope that a wave of common sense and decency descends on the State Capitol. Me, I'm shopping for a generator. Or a house in Nevada.

January 20, 2001

Chad Reichle is a technology geek, musician, and occasional author residing in the really odd land of California. For the moment.