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this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2024
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Futurology
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To a limited extent I can understand charging folks something. On the offhand chance you need to use the grid for power (or heck, to put power into it.), the grid needs to be functional, which takes repairs and maintenance, which takes money. That said, forcing to pay for lost profits is ridiculous.
Yup.
However, let me suggest a radical idea:
Any service that has infrastructure requirements like this, such that there's a mandatory "base fee" under the usage fee, should be nationalized, and the base fee paid be taxes. Every, and any, service. Water. Sewage. Electricity. Internet. Roads. Any basic need provided, that requires infrastructure that would incur a monthly maintenance fee. De-privatize it.
This would be my litmus law for nationalizing services.
Natural monopoly is the term you're looking for I believe, though I think you're going a smidge further then the definition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_monopoly
Works for me.
I'd be more amenable to fees if the companies were actually forced to maintain their infrastructure and if the government wasn't already giving them all big handouts. That comment about nationalizing all of them makes a bunch of sense to me.