They are not incompetent, they work exactly as designed and interned.
With no oversight, culpability, or even actual sanctions, in a capitalist setting doing anything more would be stupid. In fact, there is money to be earned with some outages.
I would be furious if I experienced power outages in any but the absolutely poorest countries on Earth, not because of inconvenience, but bcs there is ample money & production to mitigate basically anything that could negatively affect public infrastructure (that should be covered under basic human rights).
ERCOT managed to convince Texans it was a good idea to allow their utility company to charge them whatever they want at any given time because capitalism. The people of the state couldn’t figure out it might not be a bad idea to let a power company charge you more money in circumstances where you desperately need power and also choose to ignore the regulations the rest of the country operates under that allows the grid to work when it’s over 90 or under 40.
At a certain point it’s hard to be sympathetic for the people who make being a big huge fucking idiot to piss off anybody who isnt one their entire personality.
I get there are innocent bystanders trapped in the state but at a certain point you run out of sympathy for the guy who has been calling you slurs at the bar all night who got blackout drunk because you told him to pace himself and fell down the stairs.
They are not incompetent, they work exactly as designed and interned.
With no oversight, culpability, or even actual sanctions, in a capitalist setting doing anything more would be stupid. In fact, there is money to be earned with some outages.
I would be furious if I experienced power outages in any but the absolutely poorest countries on Earth, not because of inconvenience, but bcs there is ample money & production to mitigate basically anything that could negatively affect public infrastructure (that should be covered under basic human rights).
ERCOT managed to convince Texans it was a good idea to allow their utility company to charge them whatever they want at any given time because capitalism. The people of the state couldn’t figure out it might not be a bad idea to let a power company charge you more money in circumstances where you desperately need power and also choose to ignore the regulations the rest of the country operates under that allows the grid to work when it’s over 90 or under 40.
At a certain point it’s hard to be sympathetic for the people who make being a big huge fucking idiot to piss off anybody who isnt one their entire personality.
I get there are innocent bystanders trapped in the state but at a certain point you run out of sympathy for the guy who has been calling you slurs at the bar all night who got blackout drunk because you told him to pace himself and fell down the stairs.