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This is a defeatist EU attitude that leads to the worse outcomes. Expensive power and a failing economy. There is money now for a huge investment boom, which i

• logicchains 3mo ago
  >There is money now for a huge investment boom Not in western Europe, because they spent almost all their excess economic output over the past few decades on welfare/transfer payments.
  • rapsey 3mo ago
    That was my point. We in the EU are destroying ourselves. The US is racing ahead and investing in all kinds of power generation technologies.
    • everfrustrated 3mo ago
      The difference is Europeans expect government to "fix" things. Americans expect companies to do that. Eg, the disastrous energy policies all across Europe which have made price of energy insanely high with no hope of ever coming down (these high prices are all locked in with long term contracts). America just builds lots of new power. Because of fewer market distorting policies the new power comes online at cheaper marginal rates so the price doesn't go up. And now Texas has some of the greener and cheapest energy in the West.
      • ZeroGravitas 3mo ago
        Texas's CO2 per KWh of electricity (which is roughly equal to the US as a whole) at about 330 is equidistant between China's (470) and EU's (190) it is not close to the greenest in the West.
      • leonidasrup 3mo ago
        America has a lot of cheap fracking gas. Europe imports this gas from US in form of LNG at much higher prices. The Russian gas is cheaper, but paid by Ukrainian blood.
  • psd1 3mo ago
    Are you aware that public spending is a transfer from the public sector to the private, and that poor people spend approximately 100% of their income? Would you argue that stock buy-backs are a better use of public money? At some point, probably in the 80s, the prophets of Mammon convinced policymakers that the liquidity of capital markets was the highest good, that no liquidity was enough, and that the financial class is inherently productive. When we bailed out the banks in 2008, it amounted to a wealth transfer from the public purse to Jamie Dimon. That's your counterproductive welfare spending. Texas had blackouts last year because free-market fundamentalism. Perhaps Texans should run their fridges on investment boom.
    • rapsey 3mo ago
      Public spending is dead unproductive capital. Giving poor people money just traps them into a cycle of poverty. Spain also had blackouts.
      • psd1 3mo ago
        Yes, I'm aware of free-market-fundamentalist dogma. Are you?
        • rapsey 3mo ago
          Yeah sure dogma. Capitalism is evil, yet it lifted more people out of poverty than anything in history. Of the three economic powers, the one with the most social welfare and least capitalist is the one that never recovered from the 2008 crisis. Funny how that is. Strange when all the welfare gets spent in the economy. The one with the unproductive capital buying back shares is building GW datacenters. The other with "productive" capital, is encouraging people not to buy ACs because the electric grid cant handle it and using energy is bad for the environment.
          • psd1 3mo ago
            I travel to Spain regularly; I meet people in their homes and offices, in cities and villages. AC is commonplace. The Spanish blackout, singular, last year was a cascading control plane faillure - i.e. independent of resource allocation. Texas failed to prepare for predictable winter storms - i.e. a market failure. Germany is your counterpoint to Texas, if any, not Spain. I will help you throw rocks at German energy policy, if you like, otherwise I fear you would miss. Again. > Capitalism is evil I suspect I'm more pragmatic than your straw man. If you want my political stance, just ask. > Capitalism ... lifted more people out of poverty than anything in history Soap has lifted more people out of poverty than capitalism. Capitalism overlaps historically with rationalism, the segue from divine right to representative government, the professionalisation of war, nationalism, colonialism, chattel slavery in the colonies, industrialisation, long-distance communication, long-distance travel, the labour movement, and countless technological advances in, e.g., agriculture and medicine. It was not the cause of any of those things; it merely existed during that time. It was not capitalism that taught farmers to rotate crops and surgeons to wash hands, it was science. We know this because China went through all the stages. In 1950, America had an advanced industrial base and was the only power left standing. China was an agrarian society struggling with a self-inflicted famine. Today, China is America's peer. Sick Man Of Asia to superpower in three generations. A communist planned economy produced the same result as capitalism, and did it faster, from a worse starting point. The USSR collapsed because of a skill issue, but it also went from agrarian to superpower in three generations. Will you discard that piece of dogma now? > ...is the one that never recovered from the 2008 crisis You brought up the 08 crash... in defence of free-market capitalism. I can't tear my eyes off this car crash. Please, continue, I need more.