Path: csiph.com!weretis.net!feeder8.news.weretis.net!reader5.news.weretis.net!news.solani.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Richmond Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: Residents Of =?utf-8?B?8J+HuvCfh7g=?= Lake Tahoe Losing Their Electricity Supplier To AI Date: Fri, 15 May 2026 13:50:58 +0100 Organization: Frantic Message-ID: <821pfcx2dp.fsf@example.com> References: <10u5joq$1110u$1@dont-email.me> <82a4u183n3.fsf@example.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Info: solani.org; logging-data="317666"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@news.solani.org" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Cancel-Lock: sha1:JFdeWv2MpYrkOhuuffsWRBtC7aw= sha1:N77SKila1Rb+9Id5cAeVWDAWFlM= X-User-ID: eJwNw4ENwDAIA7CXoISwnpOx8v8JnSVn0NkFJpGT89mOw1EsP5IQ9o+HnEFAXJq3K9sB29Z1AR6BEOw= Xref: csiph.com comp.misc:28589 oldernow writes: > On 2026-05-15, Richmond wrote: >> Lawrence D’Oliveiro writes: >> >>> From the “only in the USA” file: an electricity supply company has >>> decided that it is not profitable enough to continue serving any >>> residential customers at all, and is abandoning all of its ones so >>> it can concentrate entirely on feeding the much more profitable >>> AI-server market >>> >>> . >> >> Capitalism is working exactly as intended. > > I come across a statement like that from time to time, but for the > life of me can't see capitalism as something *intended*. Doesn't > "intended" imply someone sets out to make something happen? But isn't > capitalism actually simply an emergent property of people being > people? > > The way you put it, it's as though you think one or more people sat > down and said to each other, "Hey! Let's create capitalism!" But when > was that? Who were the creators? > > To me capitalism looks more like people attempting to do what they > consider in their best interests, followed by some people imagining > there being some real thing or force ("capitalism") driving the > situation. In the UK in the not so distant past, the energy was supplied by a government owned organisation. It was privatised and split up. This was a deliberate intentional act to introduce market forces. It didn't work very well in my opinion, but there is nothing natural about it. People being people, if your neighbour asks you for a wheel barrow to you sell it to him? rent it to him? no, you let him borrow it. That is people being people. The transactional view of everything it imposed from the top.