Thursday, September 9, 2010

A Fond Farewell to the Incandescent Light Bulb (and the jobs it created)

by Proof

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What is the quintessential symbol for a great idea? Or enlightenment? Or discovery?
It's the light bulb that flashes on above someone's head! Now, thanks to the Nanny Staters in Congress, that symbol may be short lived.

WINCHESTER, VA. - The last major GE factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the United States is closing this month, marking a small, sad exit for a product and company that can trace their roots to Thomas Alva Edison's innovations in the 1870s.
The remaining 200 workers at the plant here will lose their jobs


What ever happened to being "pro choice"? When the Compact Fluorescent Lamps first came out, I bought a number of them, buoyed by the promise of long life and energy savings. It was my choice. I didn't need the government to make the cost/benefit decision for me, I made my own. Later, after having witnessed the built in ballast of one of these lamps short out, (you could tell that a lot of the "magic smoke" had gotten out) I decided that these were not the sort of bulbs I wanted to put in lamps on timers that might come on (and possibly short out) while I was away.

I still use a mixture of incandescent and CFLs, but it's my choice. Thanks to the Nanny State Congress, in just a few short years we will no longer have that choice.

The government that apparently knows best how many gallons of water (but not how many times) it takes to flush your toilets, has decided what consumer products you ought to buy. In the above scenario, if Mr. Edison's invention malfunctioned while I was away, I simply unscrew it, replace it with another and throw the old one in the trash. But, at least it was not as likely to burn my house down!

Disposal of these toxic marvels is a wonder to behold. Maybe the government could issue everyone a Hazmat suit for changing and disposing of old CFLs?

In the meantime, I'm with Rush on this one. I have a small stockpile of incandescent bulbs which they will have to pry from my "cold dead fingers"!

My sympathies to the 200 who are losing their jobs. Obama promised you "change". Welcome to Obama's new "Hooverville". Two hundred more jobs lost because of the actions of a Democrat controlled Congress.

Cross posted at Proof Positive

4 comments:

Lady Cincinnatus said...

How many congressman does it take to destroy a lightbulb industry?

Kid said...

I can't stand the CFL's.

I recently took 3 new CFL based floodlights and threw them in the trash because it took 2 minutes from them to come up to their full watt output. I replaced them with halogens.

I would use LEDs, but not the mercury laden, non-performing CFLs

lady di said...

Thanks for this post Lady. As light bulbs has been a large part of the last 35 yrs for me, when has any congressman had a bright idea that would actually help industry and not help to hinder and destroy it?

Mike aka Proof said...

If incandescent bulbs are "energy hogs", why not a warning label like cigarettes:
"Warning: The surgeon general warns the incandescent bulbs may cause your electric bill to rise"

(Unlike CFLs which cause your blood pressure to rise!)