When governments disrupt and infringe on those economic decisions, the excess costs and risks are passed on to taxpayers or added to the bills of consumers. There s nowhere else for those costs to go. When bureaucrats act, consumers and taxpayers pay. When price controls are imposed, the ceilings are almost always set to compensate businesses for those regulatory and excess costs. The illusion that prices are lower is credited to government and the actual costs are blamed on the corporations that distribute the bills.
Government investments are always uneconomic.
One of the solutions offered by Governor Gray Davis is the construction of new plants or the rehabilitation of old plants at state expense. Of course, state expense is taxpayer dollars. Such projects are certain to be the least efficient and most expensive response to electric shortages. Absent the interests of scrupulous financial investors, state bureaucrats have no incentive to diminish or optimize costs. Although the pay all the bills, taxpayers have no direct voice in the allocation of their financial resources.