{"id":263692,"date":"2026-04-22T11:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T10:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/?post_type=snippet&p=263692"},"modified":"2026-04-20T20:16:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:16:54","slug":"money-down-the-drain","status":"publish","type":"snippet","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/snippet\/money-down-the-drain\/","title":{"rendered":"Money down the drain"},"content":{"rendered":"

People often defend the capitalist market system on the grounds that the ‘price mechanism’ is the most effective and realistic way to regulate production and consumption. But because price only reflects paying potential, not actual need, this often leads to bonkers outcomes, like milk being poured down drains<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Right now there’s a global energy crisis, due to the Iran war. But UK electricity providers are telling consumers to use more power, not less. Why? Because the government expects a glut of renewable power this summer, and will have to shut down solar and wind plants, and reimburse providers for lost revenue via expensive ‘constraint payments’ (Guardian<\/em><\/a>, 14 April).<\/p>\n

Socialism, where everything is free, would be so much simpler!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-263692","snippet","type-snippet","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/snippet\/263692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/snippet"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/snippet"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}