[ursAxZA]

My point was simply that electricity has a “civilization tax” aspect to it, and lower baseline access feels closer to the kind of future-proof system we should be aiming for.

If the floor is gentle, people can actually reduce usage without feeling punished for doing the right thing.

At the moment the baseline tier feels… maybe a “C-rating” version of what a real baseline could be?

[nospice]

So who pays the tax? I mean, California already has some of the highest income taxes, corporate taxes, extra capital gains taxes, sales taxes, etc, etc. If you want to lower the cost of electricity for tens of millions of people without addressing systemic problems that make it ridiculously expensive in the first place, you gotta tax someone.

The effective income tax rate for many SF Bay Area techies is around 50%. Do we jack it up to 65% so that PG&E bills can go down from $400 to $100, like almost everywhere else in the country?

[ursAxZA]

The long version would take us far off-topic, so here’s the short one: if the tax-paying base collapses, none of this matters.

At that point the debate isn’t about pricing — it’s about survival of the system.

I could outline the full methodology behind this view, but that would turn the thread into a private seminar — and that’s not what comment sections are for.