As of January 1, 2014 it is now banned for all US companies to manufacture or import 60 and 40 watt incandescent bulbs. At first it started with the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 wherein they banned 120, 100, and 80 watt bulbs. Now as of January 1, 2014 they are banning the 60 and 40 watt bulbs. Many people are stockpiling them as a result! This whole thing was brought to my attention only about a week ago! The government is trying to force everyone to use CFL, Compact Fluorescent Light, bulbs which contain the toxic mercury gas or the very expensive LED, Light Emitting Diode, bulbs which only about 7 years ago were $70-$80 per bulb! The proposition is that the more people buy the LEDs, the lower the price will go. Admittedly their price has been dropping as they are now about $12 per bulb. However to a cash strapped middle class amidst a holographic “economic recovery”, soaring joblessness, homelessness, poverty, welfare, and food stamps along with a rapidly depreciating fiat paper trash monetary system; forking over extra hard earned currency to invest in so called “greener technology” so that eventually the price will go down is a formidable task indeed.
There is nothing that the State currently provides through theft and coercion that free human being cannot provide at a lower cost and higher quality through voluntary interaction in the marketplace.”
Justin Stout
The name of the law is a classic example of Doublespeak! It is quite easy to gage the true intention of any law given the rosy terminology by interpreting what the exact opposite of the name suggests. Being a lying thief, posing as a politician, it is quite easy to pass “laws” that mandate this or that for the “good of the people” when the real life repercussions are never felt by the “public servants” themselves. This is the hubris of Statism at its peak. The will of the people and the will of the free markets can never be predicted by any law just like the importance of a particular species in nature can never be fully appreciated until its subsequent removal from the food chain, at which time the effects become painfully obvious to any sentient human being.
Government is the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly it lies; and this lie slips from its mouth: I, the government, am the people.’ Everything government says is a lie, and everything government has it has stolen.”
Friedrich Nietzche
Five Myths About the Federal Incandescent Light Bulb Ban
Government Corporatism in a Light Bulb
Any law that forbids a particular human action, human desire, or, in this case, a very useful human invention from use will inevitably distort the free market and mutate yet another aspect thriving voluntary field of business into an ugly black market. It does nothing to appreciably curb the initial human desire or manufacture of said product. On the contrary, it often heightens, through the black market, its use and abuse to the point of creating more criminals, poverty, and violence. The violence of laws, regulations, and mandates do nothing but cause more violence, crime, and poverty. Creativity is not stimulated by the barrel of a gun.
Politicians are propaganda, the people with guns are the enforcers and the media is the enthusiastic lapdog who enables the entire behavior and acts as the verbal abuser against those who deviate from nodding their heads at the vast statues of evil that we inherited.”
I place this incandescent light bulb ban in the same category, albeit on a lesser scale, as the arbitrary prohibition of certain leaves, flowers, concentrated hallucinogenic powders etc, the prohibition of employers from paying their employees less than minimum wage, and gun control. These “laws” unnecessarily increase entropy in society by their meddling and intervening with the free and voluntary trade between peaceful individuals. They are the formation of daisy chains of side effects for which further intervention is needed at each subsequent interval. There is no end and tyranny is the inescapable conclusion to an ever expansive “government”, unless there is a mass awakening and the people realize and reclaim their sovereign power.
The problem with the state isn’t a bad politician here or there. It’s not just the Republicans. It’s not just the Democrats. (It’s not limited to any party in any country.) The problem is the state. It creates opportunities for plunder and abuse that are enormously attractive to anyone with the potential capacity to use it to exploit others.”
Gary Chartier, Conscience of an anarchist
Belief in “government” is like belief in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny. It is just as illusory and just as irrational. Although belief in “government” differs from the others in that, since it has all the guns due to its monopoly on force, it always results in more human misery, poverty, suffering, torture, imprisonment, and murder of our fellow man. Therefore it is important that we understand its egregious effects and stop believing the fairy politicians will save us from our collective sins with their authoritarian solutions. A murderous thief who dons a $5000 suit, speaks with sophomoric rhetoric, is cheered on by the masses, and is surrounded by elaborate pomp and ceremony is still a murderous thief nevertheless. To recognize him as something other than that is a fundamental denial of our faculties of reason and logic which would render us something other than a human being. Take off the rose colored glasses and unplug yourself!
Free will is not predictable by a central planning agency.”
Stefan Molyneux
Industry, Not Environmentals, Killed the Incandescent Light Bulb
Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007
Since the general civilization of mankind I believe there are more abridgments of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachment by those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
James Madison 1788 Virginia Convention
Just do good things
Danilo
A practitioner of Eastern Healing arts with degrees in Acupuncture and Chinese medicinal herbs, I have always questioned the status quo, a path which led me to peaceful anarchism. Through my journey, I have worn many hats, that of a classical pianist, avid chess player, philosopher, comedian, and now father of two little anarchists. My wife brands me as a Cultural Critic, but I am simply following my thirst for knowledge and passion for writing.
