When I was younger, I used to rant all the time about why other countries have their power lines underground (when possible of course). Fiber lines too. Or... having fiber at all in many areas.

I still rant about that, but I used to too. (Thanks Mitch)

But seriously, what a clown ass country where I have had to buy/maintain battery backups for my internet and "important electronics" not really because of black outs... yet... but because of random, maybe once a month, for no apparent reason, "oh, the power went out for 5 seconds. Oops!"

One would think, that a competently run utility of the utmost importance, such as water and electric, that if that event happened JUST ONCE it would be like knife at the CEOs throat, "hey, we don't give a shit what happened there, if these lights even flicker in the next 5 years, you're gone. And maybe prison too. This isn't a fucking joke, dipshit. "Oh the wind was blowing!" No, it wasn't. But even if it was, USE THAT $100B THE STATE GIFTED YOU AND THE JACKED UP RATES YOU CHARGE AND DIG SOME FUCKING TRENCHES AND BURY SOME FUCKING LINES!"

But hey, I guess I just actually give a shit about literally one of the few things which distinguishes civilization from... not. Water and electricity. Those two should completely, fully, totally off limits for anyone to fuck up. Which is why a lot of them used to be owned by the city or state and funded properly and given proper oversight. Yeah, it won't be perfect, especially when you have little weasel fuckers on the outside purposely crippling the funding so that they can buy them at a discount. It could be basically perfect but that requires fully abolishing private ownership of these types of utilities.

Think about the state of shit since 1980-> 2000->now. I was alive for most of that, although conscious of things like electricity for only about half, and it seems to be getting shittier and shittier and shittier. It's all held together with effectively patchworks of duct tape as the underlying infrastructure rots. I don't know the plan, seriously I really don't, when I think to 2040, 2060, etc.

No one really talks about this shit. Sure maybe it's implied by passing infrastructure bills BUT THEN IT NEVER HAPPENS. China literally has built all this kind of stuff in the last couple decades. The US last built out infrastructure in that way in the 1950s, to my knowledge. Who the fuck thinks this doesn't just equate to a collapsed, rusted over, scorching hot hellscape in coming decades while China is gonna be effectively living in a utopian future in comparison? Never discussed by anyone with any actual power. "It sounds like you, sir, are a Chinese Communist! HOW DARE YOU!"

We're just fucked. Fully and totally.

But hey, maybe if you live near a military installation you'll have brand new electrical infrastructure. Because that's what actually matters...