Alsadius comments on Why capitalism? - Less Wrong

6 Post author: Algon 03 May 2015 06:16PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (163)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: D_Alex 10 May 2015 06:00:38AM *  -1 points [-]

I still do not understand your objective in this discussion. It seems that you are implicitly against subsidising renewable energy. Is this correct?

(I work in the oil and gas industry, by the way, so fossil fuel subsidies sort of help me out...).

For that matter, I do not understand the upvotes in this thread. A citation was asked for - then it was provided - and then there are several posts attempting to invalidate the citation, attracting upvotes. Strange.

I want a better source than naked statement of a number from a biased group

We all do... could you please provide one?

if you want me to think that renewables ... are a good choice for the US...

I don't know when this discussion started to be about the US, and I don't know if I really care enough about what you think to put in more effort... are you in a position to influence what the US chooses? If yes, then I will explain why this statement:

how switching from a cheaper source [presumably fossil fuels] to one that's more expensive [presumably renewable energy]

is wrong.

Comment author: Alsadius 12 May 2015 06:32:13PM 0 points [-]

I am explicitly against subsidies, full stop. I am also of the belief that the fashionable sorts of renewables(wind, solar, etc.) get vastly more subsidies than any other form of power, particularly in the developed world, and this belief is borne out by my own experiences with my local government and with stories from elsewhere. And I thought the US was being discussed, because it usually is, but looking upthread it seems I was in error there. If any country was being discussed it was Germany, though their example is hardly different - they're spending a ton of money for an inferior power source.