Hacker News Reader

Utilities with regulated monopolies need to be on a tight leash from a regulatory perspective. They trade operational freedom for a reliable return on assets.

This changed in the 80s and 90s with deregulation. Some of them even turned into growth stocks or did other financial fuckery that made investors money at the cost of rotting out the business.

End of the day, local municipal utilities or co-ops almost always deliver a better level of service at a lower cost. Smaller scale makes field service more efficient and reduces overheads like executive compensation. One municipal utility I’m familiar with has a civil service scale for all staff — the head guy makes $140k.

There are lots of things in the rest of the world that don’t exist in the US.

i think what the parent poster might have meant was that for-profit state monopolies are bloated and inefficient (as opposed to non-profit public utilities)

that was my interpretation (from the context) anyways... maybe i’m wrong ^^;