>>1675322>stringing up power lines on poles along a county road But do that over hundreds of thousands if not millions of kilometers, and watch it add up. Do that, then come and fix it any time a storm or a falling branch knocks a line out, and watch it add up. Replace all that at some point, and watch it add up.
> or they would not existMuch rural electrification was accomplished by government initiatives. There are fixed costs to maintain that expansive infrastructure, but the population it serves is limited.
Burying lines in cities is a matter of aesthetics and convenience, rather than necessity (see developed East Asia, where they often don't do that). It is precisely because of the high population density that burying lines is economical to do, because the cost is split among so many more people.
