General Discussion

EarlG

(23,560 posts) Thu Jan 15, 2026, 09:54 AM Jan 15

102

Pic Of The Moment: How You're Paying For Billionaires To Get Richer

Large version

No Way!!! While Average US Residential Electrical Rates Rose 10% 2022-24, Industrial Rates (AI) Fell 3%

14 replies

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Highlight:

Pic Of The Moment: How You're Paying For Billionaires To Get Richer (Original Post) EarlG Jan 15 OP

Another transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich dalton99a Jan 15 #1

Somebody had to pay for those campaign contributions to Trump...... SergeStorms Jan 15 #2

Started with Reagan orangecrush Jan 15 #3

K&R LetMyPeopleVote Jan 15 #4

Those AI datacenters are being built for cryptocurrency generators FakeNoose Jan 15 #5

This message was self-deleted by its author jfz9580m Jan 15 #6

I think about how the ancient Romans died out from lead poisoning FakeNoose Jan 15 #7

Actually, I think most of them are for AI - and many are being built on land used by the crypto miners. erronis Jan 15 #10

They haven't figured out how to make a profit from AI yet FakeNoose Jan 15 #12

Quantity discounts relayerbob Jan 15 #8

K&R. Needs to be a whole book. "How billionaires become billionaires" ck4829 Jan 15 #9

AI Companies Been Buying Up modrepub Jan 15 #11

LOL 10% in three years? We just got JACKED on Oct 1st for 9.6% with Evergy Bengus81 Jan 15 #13

The big consumers can dictate or negotiate the price the pay. Aussie105 Jan 15 #14

dalton99a

(93,426 posts)

1. Another transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich

Reply to EarlG (Original post)

Thu Jan 15, 2026, 09:56 AM

Jan 15

SergeStorms

(20,382 posts)

2. Somebody had to pay for those campaign contributions to Trump......

Reply to EarlG (Original post)

Thu Jan 15, 2026, 09:58 AM

Jan 15

from the tech industry, and it sure as he'll wasn't going to be shareholders or CEOs.

orangecrush

(29,807 posts)

3. Started with Reagan

Reply to EarlG (Original post)

Thu Jan 15, 2026, 10:09 AM

Jan 15

And came to full bloom this year

LetMyPeopleVote

(178,170 posts)

4. K&R

Reply to EarlG (Original post)

Thu Jan 15, 2026, 10:12 AM

Jan 15

FakeNoose

(41,133 posts)

5. Those AI datacenters are being built for cryptocurrency generators

Reply to EarlG (Original post)

Thu Jan 15, 2026, 10:38 AM

Jan 15

It takes humongous amounts of power to run those supercomputers ... all to find the next crypto numbers.
THIS is why we're going broke! We're paying the cost for them to make their next $ billion.

It's not the one-per-centers who are exploiting us ....
This is the one-hundredth of one-per-centers. They're getting almost all the benefit out of this.

Response to FakeNoose (Reply #5)

jfz9580m This message was self-deleted by its author.

FakeNoose

(41,133 posts)

7. I think about how the ancient Romans died out from lead poisoning

Reply to jfz9580m (Reply #6)

Thu Jan 15, 2026, 12:13 PM

Jan 15

They coated their dishes and pottery cooking items with a clear glaze that fed lead into their system every day.
How stupid was that?

We're killing ourselves too, in another unique way. How stupid are we?

erronis

(23,441 posts)

10. Actually, I think most of them are for AI - and many are being built on land used by the crypto miners.

Reply to FakeNoose (Reply #5)

Thu Jan 15, 2026, 12:38 PM

Jan 15

There was a good article yesterday about how there isn't really the electrical infrastructure to power these anyway.

FakeNoose

(41,133 posts)

12. They haven't figured out how to make a profit from AI yet

Reply to erronis (Reply #10)

Thu Jan 15, 2026, 03:17 PM

Jan 15

Crypto has been extremely profitable for a lucky few.

relayerbob

(7,406 posts)

8. Quantity discounts

Reply to EarlG (Original post)

Thu Jan 15, 2026, 12:14 PM

Jan 15

Yeah, that’s the ticket.

ck4829

(37,593 posts)

9. K&R. Needs to be a whole book. "How billionaires become billionaires"

Reply to EarlG (Original post)

Thu Jan 15, 2026, 12:24 PM

Jan 15

Chapter 1: Crime
Chapter 2: Crime... if you did it
Chapter 3: By you paying more

modrepub

(4,045 posts)

11. AI Companies Been Buying Up

Reply to EarlG (Original post)

Thu Jan 15, 2026, 01:04 PM

Jan 15

Power generators for a while. Crypto bought plants on the cheap to mine bitcoin. Others doing it to pay at cost prices for electricity and not be subject to wild swings in market electric prices. The rest of us get to pay more as the public electricity generation shrinks.

Another example of privatize the profits and socialize the costs. All of us should pay market price for electricity. It incentivizes efficiency and lowers greenhouse gas emissions through efficiency.

Bengus81

(10,047 posts)

13. LOL 10% in three years? We just got JACKED on Oct 1st for 9.6% with Evergy

Reply to EarlG (Original post)

Thu Jan 15, 2026, 04:40 PM

Jan 15

Shit in three years...probably more like 20% in Kansas,much more in other places. Total fucking rip-off as they pay their shareholders $2.80 dividend per share last year.

Aussie105

(7,788 posts)

14. The big consumers can dictate or negotiate the price the pay.

Reply to EarlG (Original post)

Thu Jan 15, 2026, 08:57 PM

Jan 15

The little consumers just need to make up the shortfall.

Prices here (South Australia) for household consumers have gone up over the years too, but it's not AI at fault.

More:
1. Government has put up a seawater desalination plant for drought years.
Consumes power even when idle, as it is now.

2. Green energy infrastructure - windmills, solar farms going up.
Closing down older coal fired power stations.

3. Government funded battery emergency standby, enough battery in place to run the system for 30 minutes if country wide interconnects fail.

Our bill for an all electric home adds up to about AU $6K pa.

Quarterly bills, I imagine they will go to monthly bills soon to make it feel more palatable.

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