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Falling panel prices lead to global solar boom, except for the US

(arstechnica.com)
249 points Jtsummers | 1 comments | 30 Oct 25 16:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.334s | source
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mmooss ◴[30 Oct 25 17:14 UTC] No.45762412[source]▶
As I wrote elsewhere, the US government and economy are now essentially a private equity takeover for a large segment of wealthy business: Squeeze out as much money as possible short term - including by issuing debt againts its assets, slashing and burning any costs regardless of ROI and with no regard for the future, and leave the bankrupt husk for someone else to deal with.

The treatment of fossil fuels and renewables fits: Block the obviously more economical and better long-term solution in order to shovel money toward the entrenched wealthy. That it sabotages the future due to climate change and economic inefficiency doesn't seem to be a significant factor to them.

I forgot, one of the entrenched corporate wealthy told us that climate change isn't a big deal, and we should send money to his and his friends for solutions.

I'm not anti-business; in fact, quite the opposite: These policies block a free market and the brilliant new businesses that can thrive and deliver solutions to everyone.

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WheatMillington ◴[30 Oct 25 18:58 UTC] No.45763865[source]▶
Americans get what they vote for - it's not like any of this is a surprise, Trump is a well understood entity.
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1. codyb ◴[30 Oct 25 20:09 UTC] No.45764744[source]▶
I mean... sort of.

But let's look at the structure for a bit...

- Citizens United has allowed unfettered amounts of dark money to flow into our elections, disproportionately benefiting the uber wealthy

- The Senate greatly favors rural states, sometimes 60 - 1 by vote weight

- The House is pretty much a race to the bottom in terms of gerrymandering, where many districts are pretty much unloseable

- Many states purge rolls and make it harder to vote by closing polling places, restricting early access, adding id requirements, and restricting mail in voting. Combined with the fact that election day is on a random Tuesday which we don't take off as a nation to go vote

- Education is... not in a great place. Many many people have _no idea_ how the system works at all, or what's happening within it day to day. But they are getting inundated with 7 second flashes of information and misinformation on infinite feeds which bubble their users, lead them to increasingly extreme content, and make it hard to distinguish between fact and fiction

So yea, he's well understood in that half the country has no idea he's all over Epstein's list and think the felonies he's been charged with are bogus while cheering on the prosecution of Letitia James for renting out an apartment that said she could rent it out in the contract she signed

And we voted for him in the sense that only 7 states seem to matter in our presidential elections, and we're constantly inundated with information about how our votes barely matter cause of all the imbalances in elections at every level