this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2026
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[–] HiTekRedNek@lemmy.world 6 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (4 children)

My question is, why does it matter who in government supports what?

Let the people decide what to use or not themselves.

Personally, I love solar. If I could afford to buy a bunch of panels and batteries, I'd be generating my own electricity, and happily tell my power company to suck my dick.

Decentralization should not be so controversial!

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 6 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

The government paid like $1B for wind farm developers to abandon projects.

Most of the time government slows things down, but the current administration actively fights against progress or shatter people want. wtf does he care about wind farms in New England enough to shut them down

I mean the alternatives are not all wine and roses. We pay among the highest electricity prices in the country and a big part of that is depending on wind farms that are already like a decade behind. Previous governments slowed them down, letting everyone be heard, but they didn’t actively oppose

[–] HiTekRedNek@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

Oh, I agree with you on that. We should not be picking winners and losers based on politics. That way leads to ruin.

When the right complains about wind farm and solar subsidies, I agree with them. They need to prosper or not on their own, not with tax money.

When the left complains about oil and gas exploration subsidies, I agree with them, too. For the same reason as above.

I get why people want to nationalize all these industries, and it's because those industries were created in large part by using our money.

I also know that when a government constantly shields its citizens, including their businesses, from their own mistakes, it tends to create an attitude of dismissal towards improvement.

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 31 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

My question is, why does it matter who in government supports what?

Because they were actively holding back required approvals for the wind farms to begin operations.

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 7 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Because if you dont have some kind of regulation it ends up being about market forces, which has even less to do with the will of the people and more to do with what makes a very few people rich.

The main issue with government intervention isnt that "government bad", it's that those same few rich people have more influence on it than the will of the people. In a large part because those people would rather cede that power to them rather than make any kind of rational decision.

Its good that green energy is benefiting from market forces right now... but it's a fair weather friend, and as soon as something else is more likely to make some rich asshole more money, it will be tossed back in the junk heap to rot.

[–] HiTekRedNek@lemmy.world -3 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

Without the people buying things, those rich don't exist. All regulations really do is line the pockets of the already existing companies and make it harder for the small guy working out of his garage.

People have forgotten that the wallet is the most powerful way to vote. Don't buy their product and they won't make any money.

[–] Soggy@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

All regulations really do is line the pockets of the already existing companies and make it harder for the small guy working out of his garage.

And protect the environment from wanton pollution and destruction, and provide workers with guarantees against their employer, and keep needlessly dangerous products from hurting customers, and...

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 5 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

And without those rich people making them, they have nothing to buy. They dont just magically appear for people to buy. That is a misconception (or misdirection, rather) with how consumer action works. You cant take action if the rich dont let you in those situations.

The wallet is only as powerful as the people who run your economy, and generally less so.

[–] HiTekRedNek@lemmy.world -2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

The economy doesn't need to be "run" is my entire point.

[–] WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

tell that to the owner class. maybe they will care and stop running the economy, if you are asking nicely enough.

[–] Equinox1289@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Personally, I find regulations to be a bandaid over a legitimate problem: shareholder misalignment. Really, companies should only ever be consumer and worker coöps since those are the direct stakeholders and the reason businesses exist in the first place. Shareholders aren't needed and only serve as a form of parasitic wealth extraction that feeds capital accural, cartel formation, and monopolization.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

But you’re missing externalities. A huge reason we need better regulation is the tendency of corporations to externalize their costs to all of our detriment.

Climate and pollutions issues are a prime example. In a free market A corporations saves money by evading cleanup costs, polluting, and the rest of us pay. A justly regulated market minimizes those externalities so the corporations covers all its costs

[–] Soggy@lemmy.world 6 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Even a perfect utopian co-op needs regulations beacuse most people don't know anything about environmental impact or proper safety precautions.

[–] Omgpwnies@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

Any work I do on my house I do to code (and I do look it up when starting a new project). The previous owner... not so much - I found newspaper wrapped around electrical junction boxes, because wires never get hot enough to light old, super dry newspaper on fire....

[–] jumperalex@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Nor is decentralization controversial. And there can be a conversation about making sure it is not actively discouraged.

But economies of scale are real. Does that mean a single power plant for the entire US, continent, world is a good idea? Of course not. Nor is 8.3 billion* individual installations.

* current world population