[IMC-Editorial] Letter: Will More Regulation Prevent Future Blackouts?

[The Ayn Rand Institute]

Dear Editor:

Post-blackout, some are calling for even more government regulation. A New York Times 
editorial (Aug. 16) urges us to consider "whether the government should step in to 
ensure the reliability of the nation's power supply" because, "the grid is so complex--
with hundreds of companies operating power plants or transmission lines around the 
country--that it is extremely difficult to coordinate actions quickly."

Well, thank God we already have government regulation in the sock industry. A constant 
team of police, federal agents, judges, and justices of the peace help keep the greed of 
hundreds of sock manufactures harnessed to the public good. Otherwise, you can just 
imagine the chaos that would result, given all the complexity: if just one thread in the 
complex grid of woven sock were to break, a catastrophic failure could rip through the 
fabric, exposing a toe or perhaps even an entire heel to the unforgiving inner surface 
of shoe or slipper.

And it is thanks to government's police-presence that a constant supply of socks is 
available at distribution centers (sometimes called "stores")--even as the public need 
for socks waxes and wanes, not only with the changing seasons but with other, even less-
predictable factors. Only the superior intellect of our government officials could 
assure the adequacy of the sock supply--with a reserve of socks for periods of acute 
public need.

You can only imagine, in a nightmare scenario, what kind of sock-shortages and toe-outs 
would occur if sock-providers were operated as a profit-seeking scheme, with owners out 
only for themselves.

What's that? The sock industry *is* a profit-making enterprise? And it is the electrical 
power industry that's been practically a branch of the government since forever? Oh. 
Never mind, then.

Sincerely,

Harry Binswanger
Ayn Rand Institute

2121 Alton Parkway, #250
Irvine, CA  92606
United States
(212) 983-6429

Please let me know if you decide to publish my letter. Thank you.

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