First screen, captured 3 days ago. Hover to scroll the page, or open the video.

Investor-owned utilities charge 23% more for electricity than public providers

What HN thinks

A thread where 'natural monopoly' gets defined five times and the free market still doesn't show up to fix the bill.

Natural monopolies belong in public hands
Many argue grids, water and similar infrastructure can't sustain real competition, so profit-seeking owners just extract rent and should be replaced by public or co-op ownership.
The comparison is too crude
Skeptics say the 23% figure ignores taxes, cheap public financing, geography and service quality, and point out that utility stocks have underperformed the market.
Shareholder primacy isn't legally required
A long side debate concluded that companies aren't legally forced into short-termism; incentives like executive stock pay drive it instead.

Consensus: Most agree utilities are natural monopolies where ordinary market competition doesn't work, so they need either public ownership or heavy regulation. Customer-owned co-ops are widely seen as aligning incentives well.

Recommended in the comments

Long-Term Stock Exchange ↗ (service): Offered as one way out of short-term shareholder-value pressure.
DQYDJ Stock Return Calculator ↗ (tool): Suggested for checking whether utility shareholders actually earn outsized returns.

Summarised by Claude from the comment thread 2 days ago.

Points: 461
Comments: 373
Best rank: #1
Posted: 2026-10-23 by hubraumhugo
Category: Politics policy

electricity-prices utilities energy public-power eia data-visualization

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Captured 3 days ago. Click for the whole screenshot.

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