My electric bill has an $85.22 transmission charge, a $97.72 distribution charge, and a $13.50 customer charge—apparently the privilege of merely existing as an AEP customer.
The actual electricity from my supplier?
$165.79.
So I’m paying $196.44 before we even get to the electricity itself. I’m paying more to have the electricity transmitted, distributed, and an account maintained than I am for the actual electricity.
And somewhere along the way, I have to admit that younger me was a goddamn fool for believing that a sufficiently capitalist system would naturally sort this shit out.
Because there is a fundamental problem with applying ordinary free-market logic to things people cannot realistically choose not to have.
We built American society around electricity. We built it around running water. We built our cities and suburbs around vehicles and transportation. Most Americans cannot simply decide, “Electricity has gotten rather expensive; I believe I shall stop purchasing it.” Nor can most people walk out their front door and choose among six competing sets of electrical wires running down the street.
You need electricity to live in a modern home. You need transportation to get to work because your employer isn't conveniently located next door and you don't live in the company fucking village.
That's not a normal competitive market.
And when I look at this electric bill, suddenly I understand perfectly why people start looking at solar panels, batteries, generators, and anything else that gives them some independence from the system.
Because paying more for the infrastructure that delivers my electricity than for the electricity itself feels fucking absurd.
And AEP? Spare me the excuses when the power goes out.
This isn't some undercapitalized little rural co-op operating out of a pole barn. This is an enormous utility company with enormous resources operating infrastructure that millions of people absolutely depend upon.
If you're going to collect billions of dollars from customers for transmission, distribution, infrastructure, riders, fees, and everything else attached to the bill, then I expect something in return.
I expect the electrical grid to be extraordinarily safe, extraordinarily reliable, properly maintained, resilient, and restored with extraordinary speed when it fails.
That's the bargain.
You don't get monopoly-like control over essential infrastructure, collect enormous amounts of money from a captive customer base, and then behave as though extended outages are simply an unfortunate act of God for which nobody could possibly have prepared.
And I'm not even going to start on UnitedHealthcare, because that's another rant entirely.
But the underlying problem is the same.
At some point we have to recognize that there are certain things at the foundation of modern human existence—electricity, water, healthcare, transportation infrastructure—where “the market will sort it out” isn't an adequate public policy.
Capitalism works extraordinarily well when customers can meaningfully say no.
When they can't, you'd better have competition, strong regulation, public accountability, or some combination of all three.
Otherwise, we haven't created a free market.
We've just created a tollbooth in front of something people need to live.
