Thursday, February 21, 2008
Another case for nationalisation posted by Richard Seymour
The energy companies register record profits and sky-high prices. It's no good complaining about 'profiteering' among private companies. That's what they're supposed to do. The profit motive is supposed to drive improvements in efficiency, sustained investment and - therefore - lower costs. The fact that it doesn't do so is hardly going to dissuade private energy companies from jacking up the prices as far as they can, and even breaking the law if they have to, in order to improve their returns. It would be a quite modest step to simply take these things into public ownership and introduce substantial price reductions or, alternatively, socialise the cost thoroughly through taxation so that it can be free at the point of delivery. In fact, it is probably the only way that the use of carbon-based energy can be slowly phased out - as long as private capital has a vested interest in keeping us using fossil fuels, we will not be able to make the shift to renewables and other forms of sustainable energy.Labels: nationalisation, respect, socialism