Nuclear Socialism

The right wing constantly scream about Obama’s socialist healthcare (it isn’t socialist but that does not stop them). They say the government is taking over healthcare. That is bad. It is against the constitution (it isn’t) and it will ruin the country. They want “time tested commonsense market solutions” (Palin). Everybody at CNBC are very big on letting the market take care of everything. “Let the market fix it,” they say. We are a capitalist country. The government cannot afford to fix everything. We are not a nanny state etc etc etc. You have heard it over and over and over again. And then there is nuclear power.

The market does not want nuclear power. The market has not wanted nuclear power since Three Mile Island. For the market, nuclear power is too expensive. For the market, nuclear power is too dangerous. The market cannot make money on nuclear power because insurance is too expensive. General Electric, who makes nuclear power plants if they were allowed to build them, can only afford $12 billion worth of insurance because to buy more insurance would cost too much money. The problem with this is that $12 billion is not near enough insurance to cover a nuclear catastrophe. Not even close. General Electric says that if it were allowed to build a nuclear power plant then the government would have to insure the plant in case of a catastrophe. Would this be socialized electricity?

The right wing want to build more nuclear power plants. The Republicans want the government to self insure the nuclear power industry. In fact the government already insures nuclear power. The government (we the people) subsidizes the nuclear power. It is called the “Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act.” The right wing would call this nuclear socialism. The market cannot afford nuclear power. Just like the people cannot afford health care. Time tested commonsense market solutions will not work for nuclear power. Just like time tested commonsense market solutions will not work for health care. Where is Michele Bachman and Sarah Palin on this?

Just remember this when you hear the Republicans tell you that we need nuclear power. Just remember this when the Republicans tell you that Obama Care is socialism.

Explore posts in the same categories: Uncategorized