WP - Deregulation "Myth" - How do I gouge thee? Let me count . . .

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Electricity Deregulation: High Cost, Unmet Promises
Competition a 'Myth' as Prices Spiral Upward

By Terence O'Hara and Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, March 12, 2006; Page A01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/11/AR2006031101603.html

At the time, in 1999, evangelists for deregulation described a competitive, efficient and lower-priced system of energy delivery that, for the most part, remains a fantasy in the Mid-Atlantic region and other parts of the country today, according to industry experts.

The District, Maryland and Virginia, along with much of the nation, are wrestling with the ramifications of deregulation at the same time that the cost of producing electricity is skyrocketing. But as energy prices have soared, electricity rates have gone up more in deregulated states than in regulated ones.

Though Northern Virginia residents won't feel the full effects of deregulation until 2010, when rate caps expire, caps were lifted for Pepco customers in the District and Maryland several years ago, resulting in steady increases, including a 38 percent jump for suburban Maryland and 12 percent for the District announced last week.

Will we all finally wise up to this "deregulation" bullshit that has been passed out lo these many years? It has NOT brought competition and lower prices for American consumers - it is a SCAM and a FRAUD!

Grandma Millie lost her house in California and moved to Maryland, but the scammers are following her

[Lindsay]

1. Raise your hand, anyone who didn't

see this coming.

They lie, and they lie, and they lie some more.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. But why do we take their lies lying down?

Why the passive acceptance by people who are being milked like cows by both their representatives and these private companies? This is what I can't figure out. You would think that people would respond when it's their own pockets being picked. Government intervention and regulation and price controls are necessary when we are talking about the NECESSITIES of life - like electricity and oil.

[Warpy]

3. Deregulation = "Stick 'em up, sucker!"

I can't believe anyone bought these lies. They were nothing more than looting the public and transferring what the public had owned into corporate hands.

Hell, look at the health insurance game. We were promised competing insurance companies to keep the prices down. Well, those companies have merged and merged again, leaving just one company in many areas, and the prices continue to soar as they continue to deny us care in order to increase their profits.

Colleges are turning out more privatization and supply side true believers every year, business majors who are propagandized by economics departments heavily endowed by the same pigs that are pushing this stuff to make themselves richer. I don't see this idiocy going away any time soon unless something drastic happens to the economy.

Alas, I think that might be the case. Our systen is simply not sustainable.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

4. Deregulation - a vital piece of the smash and grab Bush economic plan nt