Hacker News Reader

Comment by ollysb | Hacker News Reader

The culture of protecting existing businesses is becoming infuriating to read about. Businesses are there because they're the most efficient way to solve the needs of a group of people. If circumstances change and a better solution presents itself then both new and _existing_ businesses have an opportunity to take advantage of it. There's absolutely nothing to stop the existing utility companies being the companies that lead the charge with solar power.

View on HN

This article isn't talking about protecting them, simply the problems that they are now facing and will likely face in the future.

"There's absolutely nothing to stop the existing utility companies being the companies that lead the charge with solar power."

Did you read the article? Energy infrastructure is amortized over THIRTY years. That means that they have huge liabilities until that equipment is payed off and chances are they have to upgrade it shortly after. Even pumping the solar companies full of government and investment dollars doesn't compare to all of the private equity that has gone into funding the existing infrastructure.

I acknowledge this is slightly off topic, but the culture of attacking industries seems somewhat problematic for similar reasons. Passing unfriendly restrictions and higher and higher taxes on oil companies, doesn't really help solve the problem. Sure they're oil companies now, but they're not really oil companies. They're energy companies, are the biggest investors in better solutions, and have the most to lose if they don't invest in the future so why hinder them so much?

You frustration is from your false assumption. Businesses are there to make their owners as much money as possible. This frequently does not involve efficiency.

Taking a look at things from society's perspective, society decided that individuals should privately own for-profit businesses because, for a large subset of society's needs, that is the most efficient way to produce these needs. In that sense, capitalism as it exists is meant to serve society. It merely works out that the incentive to maximize profit in this system _approximately_ aligns with society's interest in acquiring goods at minimum cost---that is, if certain conditions, such as adequate competition, are met.

Of course this isn't the only reasonable perspective, but it certainly isn't false.

Yeah, poor choice of words on my part, I should have said: Businesses _survive_ because they're the most efficient way to solve the needs of a group of people.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com