[Fyron]

The good ole Democratic state legislature of California forced the power companies to sell off most of their power plants to third parties, who were then able to jack up the prices and create false shortages to make huge profits.

A lot of people here believe that govt just gets in the way and so are against regulations. Ironically - at least in this forum - some middle class and lower class (at least that's what they've professed) are against govt regulations when they are the very ones one who these regulations protect (rich people don't need protection they can afford to pay for their own services).

No, they most likely believe that the role of government is not to be big brother and to get its hands in places where they do not belong. There is nothing ironic about it. The role of government is to interact with other nations, protect us from hostile invasions, and provide a minimum amount of services that can not be provided by private companies. I can't speak for everyone, but I am against government regulation of things that the government has no business in regulating, and for regulation of the relatively small spectra of things that the government needs to have a hand in.

Argentina and (power in California)is a perfect example of what can happen when "govt gets out of the way so business people can do business".

It is a good example of government officials not knowing what they are doing and fubaring everything, yes. Many states have deregulated energy markets that run perfectly fine. The only thing that allowed the crooks to create the power shortage was the piss-poor way in which the energy market was deregulated in CA. If it had been done properly, the energy crisis never would have happened. Now who was it again that allowed all this to happen? Ah yes, those guys that want to regulate everything under the sun. They usually end up not knowing how to go about anything right in the first place.