There are more than two thousand publicly owned electric utilities now operating, day by day, week by week, throughout the United States (many in the conservative South). Indeed, 25 percent of US electricity is supplied by locally owned public utilities and co-ops.
What Then Must We Do? Straight Talk About the Next American Revolution
Gar Alperovitz Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland
BOOM AND BUST TONOPAH, NEVADA
We are a democracy, we are a republic, and we are capitalists. There are particular pieces of our economy that function best in the private sector and other pieces that are best kept in the public sector. We are having a hell of a time aren’t we? Monster sized banks smothering politicians with outsized donations get the recipients to sing their hymns. We’ve privatized, deregulated, and left a reckless free market unsupervised. We are only one of many capitalists in the world, one of many flavors, while our multinational corporations once birthed here have slipped the noose and now float about flitting from nation state to nation state seeking to press their advantage. It isn’t too difficult to understand even if it is nearly impossible to gain a vote in our favor from a Washington paid to look the other way. I would think a company that made bicycles, one owned and operated by its workers, a company managed by a team elected by the workers, wouldn’t allow management to unbolt their equipment, and ship their factory to China. The only explanation for such behavior is that our incentives are not aligned with our interests. Our interests have been hijacked. I’m looking for a more compassionate capitalism.
HOT SPRING HONEYMOON
“We’ll have to find a way of changing his mind.” Fletcher McCrea said.
“Man like that doesn’t change his mind.” Dusty said.
“Meadowhawk starts changing a mind the day someone sets foot here.” Keefe said. “Raise your hands if you ever had Dotty and Gage give you credit?”
Near everyone raised their hands.
“Look around,” Keefe said, “You see, Dotty and Gage made a life here because they fell in love with the people here, and they know who their customers are and what their customers mean, it’s about us sticking together instead of all of us being picked apart.”
