Wehrwolfen
Senior Member
- May 22, 2012
- 2,750
- 340
- 48
A Failed Experiment
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
November 21, 2012
In upper-middle-class suburbs on the East Coast, the newest must-have isnt a $7,500 Sub-Zero refrigerator. Its a standby generator that automatically flips on backup power to an entire house when the electrical grid goes out.
In part, thats a legacy of Hurricane Sandy. Such a system can cost well over $10,000, but many families are fed up with losing power again and again.
(A month ago, I would have written more snarkily about residential generators. But then we lost power for 12 days after Sandy and that was our third extended power outage in four years. Now Im feeling less snarky than jealous!)
More broadly, the lust for generators is a reflection of our antiquated electrical grid and failure to address climate change. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave our grid, prone to bottlenecks and blackouts, a grade of D+ in 2009.
So Generac, a Wisconsin company that dominates the generator market, says it is running three shifts to meet surging demand. About 3 percent of stand-alone homes worth more than $100,000 in the country now have standby generators installed.
Demand for generators has been overwhelming, and we are increasing our production levels, Art Aiello, a spokesman for Generac, told me.
Thats how things often work in America. Half-a-century of tax cuts focused on the wealthiest Americans leave us with third-rate public services, leading the wealthy to develop inefficient private workarounds.
Its manifestly silly (and highly polluting) for every fine home to have a generator. It would make more sense to invest those resources in the electrical grid so that it wouldnt fail in the first place.
But our political system is dysfunctional: in addressing income inequality, in confronting climate change and in maintaining national infrastructure.
The National Climatic Data Center has just reported that October was the 332nd month in a row of above-average global temperatures. As the environmental Web site Grist reported, that means that nobody younger than 27 has lived for a single month with colder-than-average global temperatures, yet climate change wasnt even much of an issue in the 2012 campaign. Likewise, the World Economic Forum ranks American infrastructure 25th in the world, down from 8th in 2003-4, yet infrastructure is barely mentioned by politicians.
So time and again, we see the decline of public services accompanied by the rise of private workarounds for the wealthy.
Is crime a problem? Well, rather than pay for better policing, move to a gated community with private security guards!
Are public schools failing? Well, superb private schools have spaces for a mere $40,000 per child per year.
Public libraries closing branches and cutting hours? Well, buy your own books and magazines!
Are public parks even our awesome national parks, dubbed Americas best idea and the quintessential public good suffering from budget cuts? Dont whine. Just buy a weekend home in the country!
Public playgrounds and tennis courts decrepit? Never mind just join a private tennis club!
[excerpt]
Read more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/opinion/kristof-a-failed-experiment.html?_r=0
