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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   29717 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 12, 2022

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On topic of quite literal culture wars, but differently than usually defined here: my family is buying electricity generator for an Ukrainian family.

It is about 500 euro, goes directly to family member of refugee family that we are hosting so there is a decent chance that it will reach intended targets - and I am far more sure about this than with many charities.

Mentioning that mostly as a possibility if someone would be interested in doing something similar.

If you're Europeean, you might want to buy one for yourself as well.

There is no plausible scenario under which I would benefit from owning one. And I am in situation where benefits are far smaller and costs are larger than average - so even if it would make sense for 70% of people in EU to buy power generator it still would make no sense for me.

Also, it seems that you are jumping into doomerism of some kind.

I mean my government has literally been warning people about possible blackouts, and electricity prices have gone up so bad that the town I used to live in had to cancel their electricity contract and buy a bunch of generators to run their services. The diesel somehow ends up cheaper for them.

I could get into why this is happening but it's all very boring legalese about the EU energy market, shock enabled speculation and stupid decisions from decades ago. None of which anyone has the will to fix, as usual.

I haven't actually considered much what the future of Europe will be like, I just know it sucks right now, it's likely going to suck harder this winter and there's no telling for how long.

In these conditions it seems prudent to be prepared for the worst. Call it insurance.

my government has literally been warning people about possible blackouts

Which one? Not sure whether in Poland risk is lower or whether is the same or greater and government is more incompetent (or yours is more panicking)

France, which you'd think would be safer because of all those nuclear power plants right? But it's not because we have to sell that stuff to the Germans at the market price by EU law. Which means their woes are rising our prices.

Ironically Poland is probably safer on that front because your energy mix is mostly coal which is not sanctioned and you already had some of the highest energy prices in Europe before the crisis so the shock likely doesn't hit as bad. Worst case scenario you can reopen the once mighty Polish coal mines or import more.

Meanwhile the Germans have their whole economy based around cheap Russian gas and petroleum that isn't easily replaced (the logistics to substitute pipelines and get imports from somewhere else are quite complicated), is sanctioned and they were already buying a lot of our nuclear at the best of times.

which is not sanctioned

strictly speaking Poland sanctioned Russian coal on its own, but problem is "high prices" not "we will freeze to death", and transport coal from new source is much easier to achieve than for gas.

How are you making sure it gets to the intended recipients?

Is fuel for the generator generally available?

How are you making sure it gets to the intended recipients?

Giving it to person well known to us who will transfer it to her direct family. There is low chance of some obscure scam, but it seems reasonably low.

Petrol/oil remains accessible for now, but power is intermittent and getting worse.

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