Oddbean new post about login | logout @f8d9bc1c At what point should a government seize control of private resources? Like a #usstatedepartment take over of #Starlink in wartime. Or the #Texasgrid turn off the power to #Texas #bitcoin miners during a #heatwave (or permanently as polluters). What's the opposite of #privatize again?
@1f15c8ed @f8d9bc1c In the case of the Texas grid, it's not "government seizing control" at all. There are 2 ways miners turn off temporarily: 1. When spot market prices for electricity increase too much, i.e. there's either not enough wind or demand increases dramatically, miners turn off their machines when it's not profitable. 2. The ERS (Emergency Response Service) allows ERCOT to purchase control over generation and load for rapid intervention. Those agreements are signed voluntarily.
@1f15c8ed Do you have a link to how the U.S. government seized control over Starlink in the past? I do not remember this having happened at all. IIRC SpaceX has normal contracts and service agreements with them, which seem to have been sufficient so far. "During wartime" would mean that there's an actual war declared by Congress, which hasn't happened since 1942 (in World War 2).