[LearsFool]

My question is how much advancement has been lost due to the meddling nature of government?

Interesting point. We might each be generating our own electric power, for starters.

I read some time ago about what rural folks did before electric lines had reached them. It was very simple to rig up a generator to the windmill and charge up a tractor battery to power the few household devices (lamps, radio, etc.) Necessity being the mother of invention, there's no telling what folks might've come up with had it not been for government mandating rural electrification.

[Cowman]

Interesting point. We might each be generating our own electric power, for starters.

One advantage of decentralization like that would be that major outages would be less likely. Now if a transmission line is knocked down by a storm or an out of control driver all of the users downstream lose power. if everyone had their own generating facilities then you don't need transmission lines.

But then how would they be able to charge an "Energy Delivery Tax, or send meter readers around to walk on your petunias?"