The Summary confuses me...
From the summary:

From the linked story:

Did he print an actual kidney or not. I am guessing not.

The major losses are not in transmission, they are in converting the energy stored in the coal, gas,... to electric energy. For a coal plant, this process is about 40% efficient.

You should also consider the efficiency of the power plant when calculating the difference between NG and electric heat. The efficiency of a typical coal fired electric plant (most common in USA) is about 40%. So for every 1W of energy it produces it uses about 2.5W. Therefore, 1W of heat from your electric light bulb will require 2.5W of energy (Neglecting any distribution losses). 1W of heat from NG (assuming 90% efficient furnace and 10% distribution overhead) will use about 1.25W of energy. This is why resistive heating is not a great option for heating. If you do the same calculation for a heat pump running at 250% efficiency: 1W output => (1/250%)/40% = 1W input.

To send me coupons in the mail.

I suppose if the kid got into my salon's database he/she would learn my name, phone number, address, and that I like my hair cut with a number 2 guard and my sideburns trimmed. I could be concerned if 75% of this information was not in the White Pages.

All over the US there are private roads and people voluntarily pay tolls to travel them because, brace yourself again, they provide a much more pleasant commute. They deal with traffic congestion immediately, they undertake repairs and maintenance quickly and effectively, without bloated government bureaucracy making repairs and improvements take years and cost tax payers millions of dollars and they do it with their own money.

Toll roads work pretty well for highways, but they would be a nightmare for surface streets. If corporation XYZ controls the street connecting your driveway to the outside world, you are pretty much screwed if they decide jack the toll rate up. What would your solution be? Would you have multiple toll roads connecting to your house so you could decide which way would be the cheapest way to travel to work? Expanding or building new roads would be more expensive and slower then it is now as corporations would not have emanate domain to fall back on if someone won't sell.

99% of data that is worth accessing is accessed enough to ensure it is in a readable format. As far as the other 1%, it will give our children of the future something to do. Sounds like another stupid excuse for everything to be open and free. Some things are better proprietary and expensive.