A small dose of sanity in an otherwise insane world – from CNS:
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) says that he is “close” to an agreement with sponsors of legislation that would repeal the 2007 ban on the ordinary incandescent light bulb…
This is Upton fixing his own mistake – he sponsored the original legislation banning incandescent light bulbs. The justification was to reduce our energy consumption – the actuality was to provide a bonanza for makers of alternative light bulbs at the cost of destroying jobs making incandescent bulbs. In other words, just par for the course Big Government interference in the market place.
Don’t get me wrong – my house is entirely lighted by the new bulbs. I like the energy savings and, unlike some, I am not bothered by the actual light produced (some people claim the new bulbs are hard on the eyes – I don’t experience that). But the main thing is that it is a consumer choice – and at the moment I can change my mind. Thanks to Big Government, by 2012 I wouldn’t be able to…no one would. And we’d pay through the nose for the privilege of having someone else decide how to light our homes.
We need more and more of this – more and more retreat by Big Government, more freedom for people to decide for themselves how to live. While government will always mean regulatory oversight, there has to be a careful balance struck…and the most important part of it is not to use government tax and regulatory policy to punish the free economic transactions of the people. When we get in to that, the ultimate result is always bad for the people, always good for the politically well-connected.
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