#1087 Electrifying Parallels

I’ve been reading this book by a guy named Felix Rohatyn called “Bold Endeavors.” It’s about 10 things the Federal Government did to pump massive amounts of capital into our non-government intervention capitalist system that made America greater than it could have been otherwise.
Things like the Transcontinental Railroad, the Interstate Highway System, and the G.I. Bill. Things fought vigorously by the opposition at the time. Things condemned as socialist, or against states rights. But when pushed through by leaders with vision really ended up benefiting American capitalists as much or more as they did the common man.
One of those things was the Rural Electrification Administration. In the 20s and 30s, 90% of rural farms had no electricity. That’s shocking, you say. And indeed it was.
Living on a farm is hard work enough. Worse still when you have to deal with the drudgery and hygiene issues of essentially camping every day without electricity. So the Roosevelt Administration proposed the Rural Electrification Act.
At the time, power hadn’t been extended to distant farms because the utility companies said it was too expensive. Electrical Power was in the hands of a few utility holding companies. They were not federally regulated and had a stranglehold on rates. And had decided no current profit was to be made from extending power to poor farmers.
Roosevelt proposed having the federal government pay the cost. The utility companies fought it tooth and nail, as did their representatives in congress. Who happened to be recently out of power as they were the Republicans left after Hoover had been roundly rejected by a depression-suffering nation.
In an attempt to compromise, Roosevelt wiggled a bit on one of the main sticking points—the public option, where farmers could buy power directly from the government.
The whole thing eventually went through, the people benefited, farms got more productive and America became the breadbasket to the world.
And here’s the electrifying historical parallel. Ironically, the people who benefited most from this massive federal big government plan, that gave them the power that private industry wouldn’t, are the people that now live in anti-big government red states.
Is this a great country or watt?
America, ya gotta love it.