Here's Why Deregulation Sucks

PPL spinoff should bring stability to company
By Spencer Soper, Of The Morning Call

"Companies that make electricity hoping to sell it for a profit have been in a protracted slump, forcing some into bankruptcy or to sell off power plants. It is a boom-or-bust business vastly different from the stable returns and dividends offered by making and delivering electricity under government regulation...

...PPL's regulated electric delivery business, meanwhile, has been shielded from the volatile swings of power plant fuel prices. Regulated utilities can pass the cost of procuring and delivering electricity to customers, which makes their earnings relatively stable and predictable.

For that reason, PPL has spent the past several years and billions of dollars buying low-risk utilities in Kentucky and the United Kingdom."My Comments About The Article Above
There you go. I think the article speaks for itself. Well good for them. BUT not much so for consumers.

It's all about the cost of doing business
Government legislation has eliminated these costs through deregulation. A telephone services provider needn't own nor maintain a single piece of equipment. Hell they don't even need to know how the technology works. Just a good sales staff and bunch of accountants. Same goes for all the other formerly regulated utility companies. All of this is very much like receiving a pay check without the 'know how' or having to do any of the work.

What are the incentives for resellers?
They don't have to create infrastructure, produce nor invest in future technology for the services they sell. Simply leech off those who do for profit.

In the past if a company wished to improve technologically and become more financially competitive they'd assume these costs were a natural part of the business they were in. Once that part of the business was allowed to be separated via deregulation they began getting out of the business and became sales hucksters themselves.

What are the incentives for future suppliers?
Not much. Take for example electricity. Eventually the resellers will be forced to purchase electricity from only a handful of those left who generate it. Since wholesalers will not be competing in the retail market nor out of their service areas they can charge almost anything they like . Neither will they have a great need to introduce technological advancements to produce electric.

One of the greatest problems facing the economy of this country and it's middle income workers is how it has become little more then a nation of resellers. This disincentivizes not only critically important technological advancements in today's highly completive global market, but less need for skilled workers in them.

As a result of 'deregulation'..
(1) Consumers have only a limited advantage via the varying profit margins between resellers.
(2) The United States becomes less competitive.

In short...      NO GOOD CAN COME OF IT!