[unseen]

So should electric companies be able to sell their product to you for whatever price you are willing to pay? That would mean huge sections of the country would go dark overnight. A free market is not always the best for the common good. This country would not have the success it does if millions of people could not afford lights. The South and California would not be economic miracles if not for stable electric prices.I do have stock in XOM yes the run up has been great but the billions that taxpayers will pay in higher prices so that XOM can do its repairs for free is not good for the economy as a whole.

[FreedomCalls]

So should electric companies be able to sell their product to you for whatever price you are willing to pay?

That's pretty much the way it works in Texas. I have a choice of about twenty (!) different electric providers I can choose from if one decides to charge me too much. I can change each month if I want.

Read up on our deregulation of electricity here.

[jsm30625]

"Unseen" if you know anything about government controlled utilies, you would realize that government tends to exacerbate the problem, not solve it.

Case in point- CA government puts price caps on electricity, demand goes up because of cheap prices, and blackouts occur. Let alone the fact that some electicity companies left CA to pursue a more lucrative market that could actually turn up a profit.

http://www.rppi.org/041901.html

When phone service was deregulated, we now have a broken government monopoly, and can pay as little as 5.95 a month for phone service (www.broadvoice.com)

[Red Boots]

So should electric companies be able to sell their product to you for whatever price you are willing to pay? That would mean huge sections of the country would go dark overnight. A free market is not always the best for the common good

How ridiculous !

100 years ago, electricity was only available in New York City. Now it is available everywhere. It got that way not because of government actions, but because private utility companies,acting under free market conditions, used their profits to expand into unserved areas, so they could increase their profit base.

By contrast, those countries, like the Soviet Union, where everything was "regulated for the common good" still have large scetions without any electricity. The government, which was based on the idea of serving the public good, had no money to expand service to those areas, so it didn't.