We’ve subjected power companies, and by extension consumers, to energy market traders that make money by waiting for the opportunity to price gouge desperate people for electricity. /14

But hey, free market, amirite?

What a silly fiction. There are high barriers to entry for power and power grid companies, and inefficient to have competing power grids. This is why we have consumer price controls - otherwise, opportunity to price gouge would be limitless. /15

We understand this at the service to consumer level. But meanwhile, folks like Phil and Wendy Gramm became multi-millionaires by allowing the traders and middlemen to price gouge on public goods to their heart’s content. /16

Why power companies would rather have rolling blackouts than provide Texans power during severe weather. /17

Relatedly, wind turbines can be less functional in cold weather, yes. But there are mitigating steps that can be taken when the weather is expected. So this isn’t about the “unreliability” of alternative energy sources. They can f*ck off, with that talking point. /18

This is about treating the market for public goods as a “free market,” when demand is totally inelastic. As with health care: price gouging from suppliers is rampant, and so the service provider - power company, health care system - make ugly choices about service provision. /19

It’s not a free market in any sense of the word, and Adam Smith and even Milton Friedman would roll over in their grave should you call it that. They believed in public goods. /20

That’s less a stirring defense of Friedman than a reminder that most Republican politicians, pundits, and think tanks subscribe to a system of economic beliefs - Austrian economics - that no real economist would take seriously. /21

Austrians believe that any consumer choice, including “no choice,” is sufficient, and thus any market is a functioning market. A monopoly is a functioning market. A theory that’s ludicrous on its face. /22

I reference because the vaunted conservative “economic” and “free market efficiency” bona fides are, again, a total fiction. It’s not Friedman. It’s not economics at all, any more than prosperity gospel is gospel.

They’re just grifters. /23

Fraud and grift is their real ideology. Is it any wonder Donald Trump found such a welcoming home in the party? /24

In any case, I’m deeply sorry for Texans living without power in this weather. And I hope people see the reason behind it for what it is - the fault of the politicians who enabled this price gouging. /end