Government Does It Better When You Let It

Call me a socialist, but the fact is when it comes to utilities (and other things) government-run agencies work better and more efficiently than private companies. Neo-con ideology be damned, Bill Kristol can argue til he's blue in the face but the facts are the facts. Californians would be the best opponents of deregulation if only most of them knew why. The most recent example was highlighted in the conservative NY Post of all places, showing that New Yorkers lost billions of dollars due to electricity deregulation.

From The NY Post:

October 29, 2007 -- State rules aimed at curbing electric rates are instead shocking New Yorkers' wallets, sending the price of power surging by 18 percent, a new study says.

Electric deregulation cost New Yorkers $3.4 billion in the 12 months that ended June 30 - as if each of the state's 19 million residents forked over an extra $176 to power companies, according to data in the report from Power in the Public Interest.

And since deregulation took effect seven years ago, New Yorkers have overpaid a whopping $14.3 billion, the data shows.

Albany is taking note of the study by Marilyn Showalter, the group's executive director and a past president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.

Albany doesn't need to take note, they need to take action. Corporations are greedy bastards and in the case of electricity, they need to be shut down and the power (pun intended I guess) must be handed back to the people. I'm glad the NY Post saw this and reported on the story when it actually affected them personally.

Now corporations aren't all bad, sometimes they do something good (because they did something bad) for the people. So maybe I'm not a socialist or even a pinko commie bastard, but one thing is for sure, we need re-regulation.