I really want to rant on and on in response to your post, but it's just a whole other post... ya know? Great observations, and yes, most of us are quite fucked if the power goes out for an extended period of time. However, unless we're going full police state / martial law / etc., the powers that be have no interest in letting a complete meltdown occur, as it is in their best interest to keep things running 'business as usual', and keep all their busy little bees buzzing around collecting dollars for their coffers. Again, as I said, unless there is another agenda a la 'disaster capitalism'. So, on one hand it's a good thing that others are incentivized to keep the electricity on so that everyone stays in the trance, on the other hand, one might say it's just leading us ever further down the path of complete and utter dependency on the grid, and all the consumer culture it spawns, and further potential for ever greater crisis, in the event of system failure.