23 February

The danger of ideas. Texas just had a massive winter storm, which cut off most essential services, including power. Many died. Some had to sit in their car, the only heater available. Many of them were then hospitalised with carbon monoxide poisoning. Texas’ power network is completely isolated from the rest of the US because of its libertarian fanaticism - it hates government. It privatised that isolated power network, to drive competition in power prices. None of the winning firms were required to undertake any network maintenance. The whole thing collapsed in the storm.