Former Senator’s Bold Warning Still Holds True Today

One of the late Sen. Barry Goldwater’s favorite sayings was that “any government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.”

That Goldwater-ism remains in full force today, as the modern American state has become so big, its power so great, that virtually nothing is beyond its power.

Including…the humble light bulb. Some years back federal regulations killed off the incandescent light bulbs that light American households for a century. Their replacements were LED lights, which used a fraction of the electricity to generate the same, or more light.

They just cost more. But it was for our own good, so quiet, you.

But as the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Ben Lieberman writes, even the LED is not safe from a restless bureaucracy whose sole purpose is to regulate everything it can even more:

For the most common kinds of light bulbs, the current standard of 45 lumens per watt is now being tightened to 120 lumens per watt, which very few LED bulbs can meet. The light bulb market is complicated, with thousands of different versions available and multiple categories and features, but it appears that upwards of 99 percent of LEDs available today wouldn’t meet this standard when it takes effect in 2028. Even most of the bulbs currently awarded the federal government’s EnergyStar designation as being the most efficient ones on the market fall short of what will be required. The few bulbs that do meet the standard tend to be several dollars more expensive than the rest. For its part, DOE estimates the price for a typical pear-shaped light bulb rising from $2.98 to $5.68, an increase of $2.70 per bulb, or nearly 91 percent.

Not known is whether the high efficiency bulbs have any performance drawbacks, such as not lasting as long as the less efficient versions.

Regulators have several imperatives guiding their decisions. Among them is the profound impulse to be important. Important regulators get more funding  to write more regulations, rinse and repeat.

But sometimes, regulation veers headlong into a wall of commonsense. Is there a measurable, long-term benefit for requiring even brighter LEDs? I suppose were one selling sunglasses for indoor use, then yes, the benefits could be enormous.

Here, however, the higher cost per bulb will overcome any supposed lighting benefit. Which means any benefits that may exist will fall to the bottom lines of the LED makers. Not the LED users.  

Which brings us back to the Goldwater quote. Government is more than happy to require manufacturers give you more light than you can handle. But it’s going to cost you plenty. And as for cheaper substitutes? Better start stocking up on those right now….before government bans them like it did the old, reliable, inexpensive incandescent bulbs.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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Norman Leahy

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Norman Leahy has written about national and Virginia politics for more than 30 years with outlets ranging from The Washington Post to BearingDrift.com. A consulting writer, editor, recovering think tank executive and campaign operative, Norman lives in Virginia.

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