Capitalists Hate Capitalism

It seems that capitalists hate capitalism – or at least an aspect of it.

And that aspect is competition.

Competition from the solar energy industry is set to cost the electric companies in the realm of $2 billion. This competition is from roof mounted solar panels. It seems that all these people that want to save the planet are threatening the energy industry to the point where they are planning on cutting electrical production because solar is producing so much.

And, for those not in the know, the solar panels on people's houses generate electricity for the electric company. The owner of the house that has the panels receives credit from the electric company according to an equation: house usage – electric generated = electric bill. In some cases this electric bill runs negative – meaning the solar panel owner receives a credit on their bill that can be used against future electric bills. In some (rare) instances the electric company actually cuts a check for the panel owner. More likely it is going to be a credit.

And the impact of this is killing electric company profits. I think the only reason some CEOs are worried is that profitability affects their salary. For some, this might mean a pay cut.

Of course we all know how capitalist corporations solve a crisis like this – cut workers, worker salaries worker benefits, retiree benefits, and you get the picture. The people at the bottom pay the price for the people at the top's failures.

Anyone ever think that those pencil pushing desk jockeys in the plush offices are workers too? If they aren't, then what are they and why are they getting paid? Just a thought.

In any event – the other worry is that with a loss of the power generating plants comes a loss of electrical generation. Especially on days with low to no sunlight. Think December 21^st.

Germany is already suffering from this problem and is working to try and solve it. Arnie Gunderson – of nuclear power whistle blowing fame – has a quote that goes to the effect that we can't figure out how to deal with nuclear waste but we need nuclear power because we have no idea on how to store electricity generated from solar and wind power. Or something to that effect. I know I have it wrong. He's just pointing out the stupidity of the nuclear energy argument.

Elon Musk – of Tesla auto fame – has been working on a house battery for storing electricity from solar and wind power. Evidently he has made all his company's work on the project open source – free for the taking, developing, and producing.

So we have a problem and a potential solution. Solar panels (or wind turbines) and Tesla house batteries. Generate it, store it, and use it.

Is the technology perfect yet? No. I'm old enough to remember vinyl (making a comeback!) and 45's. Then came the 8 track tape (with that annoying fade out and click in the middle of a song. Anyone else have an air guitar solo ruined by that?). That was solved by the cassette tape. (Anyone else have an air guitar solo ruined by their cassette being eaten by the tape player because nobody told you how to clean and demagnetize them?) Then came the digital audio tape (the 8 track of digital sound) that never had a chance because the CD came out. Now we have mp3 players.

And my point is that technology evolves, hopefully for the better. And we need the 8 track tapes to help us get to the next level of growth. (And better air guitar solos.) We are going to run into development problems and glitches – vinyl and CDs can crack and get scratched, tapes get eaten and are susceptible to magnets, mp3 players sound quality isn't that great and need to avoid magnets and computer viruses, and anything portable needs batteries or to be charged. (Anyone else have an air guitar solo ruined because their mp3 player ran out of powewr?)

So capitalists need to look at the system that they have been fighting for and realize that they have been planting the seeds of their own destruction for years now. They can either get with the program – work on producing (non-nuclear) green energy on a continual basis – or get out of the way and let some one else lead.

Marx & Engels gives us an idea as to what will happen.

Check the Manifesto.