I’ve written about the government’s war on consumer-friendly light bulbs (and also similar attacks on working toilets and washing machines that actually clean), so I’m generally not surprised by bureaucratic nonsense.
But even I’m shocked the federal government gave an affordability award for a light bulb that costs $50. I’m not making this up. Here’s a blurb from ABC News.
The U.S. government has awarded appliance-maker Philips $10 million for devising an “affordable” alternative to today’s standard 60-watt incandescent bulb. That standard bulb sells for around $1. The Philips alternative sells for $50. Of course, the award-winner is no ordinary bulb. It uses only one-sixth the energy of an incandescent. And it lasts 30,000 hours–about 30 times as long. In fact, if you don’t drop it, it may last 10 years or more. But only the U.S. Government (in this case, the Department of Energy) could view a $50 bulb as cheap.
Isn’t that wonderful? My tax dollars were used to reward a company that produced a light bulb I can’t afford.
Lisa Benson has a very good cartoon about this light bulb, as well as the less-than-shocking news that Obamacare will be more costly than originally forecast.
If you like Lisa’s work, there are some other good examples here and here.
Last but not least, I’m up in New York City for an investment funds conference about the Cayman Islands. Not a bad view from my window, though you need to click on the image to get a good idea of what I woke up to.
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We got the liberals like Gerard Matthews in Arkansas praising the early parts of Obamacare at the Arkansas Times. I see a few problems with this assessment. Why did Matthews fail to mention that Obamacare will not give everyone coverage!!! Also he failed to mention the religious values that Obamacare would trangress or the drop in quality we will be seeing or the millions that will be shoved into an already bankrupt Medicaid system that will bankrupt Arkansas’ state government.
There is always a cost and somebody always pays. The real question is how efficient is the government versus the private market. Then I cited the above article by Dan Mitchell.
[…] Government Stupidity Defies Satire When a $50 Light Bulb Wins an Affordability Prize […]
Hahaha I should have worded my comment better Dan.
I actually agree with you and was using the “Adventure of Seth and Bill” to elude to the “Adventures of Bill and Ted” and was challenging the capability of both for exhibiting critical thinking. Guess I should have critically thought of how my comment could alternately be read.
Life time of a bulb is really circumspect…..
I have bulbs in two of my bathrooms…..been there since I bought the house from my Mother-in-Law in 2005…..and I am guessing these were the bulbs that were put in the house when it was built in 1997…..
Now in one bathroom I have 8 bulbs, 4 over each sink.
In the other bathroom I have 4 bulbs, 1 sink.
None of the 8 bulbs in the bathroom with two sinks has blown, since I have lived there.
While 2 of the 4 in the other bathroom have blown…..
So while they say how long a bulb should last…..I find those estimations are not always accurate….
Same as with Hard Drives in your computers…..
@Seth, sell that to the American Public.
That’s like saying “Please buy our $55,000 hybrid car, you’ll save loads!!!”
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You know we should all write the White House and tell them to give us the money for all these regulations being forced down our lives. Then we can all live in tents, keep the cash, and not spend anything they give us. By the time Obama pushes through his agenda, a nice hot camp fire will be the only thing keeping people warm in the winter. Oh wait, my town has regulations against open outdoor fires. Hmmm.
I’ll be curious to hear the results a year from now after the adventures of “Seth” and “Bill.”
Have you no healthy sense of pessimism after years of life experience or do you somehow have skin in the game?
I haven’t forgotten them telling us Compact Fluorescents would last 10,000 hours, buying a house load of them for several dollars per bulb, and finding myself replacing them as fast or faster than my old incandescents.
So it costs 50 times as much (more like 100-150, actually), but only lasts 30 times as long…
$50 / 30x longer bulb = $1.66.
===============
30 times longer would be $30 for 2.5 years of bulbs vs $50 for a bulb lasting 2.5 years. I also have my doubts about their energy saving claim. It is impossible for the average person to test this theory. One more thing, I was buying 75 W incandescent bulbs for about 40 cents a piece at Lowes. So with that in mind 2.5 years of bulbs at 40 cents is a cost of $12 dollars . A lot cheaper than $50. One more final thing, for reading I use at least a 75W bulb and sometimes 100W.
I think I just might email the White House and tell them to pay for my light bulbs. That way I can be certain I open the correct package when putting on my Obama subsidized condom.
I hate to differ, but if you consider the trade-offs, isn’t it cheap?
$50 / 30x longer bulb = $1.66. That’s already close to the $1 bulb on lifetime alone, not even considering the energy savings.
Then, if you factor in the 83% energy savings over ten years, it seems like the true life time cost of the bulb is cheap, no?
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