Why I Support Government Paternalism

[snousle]

Various folks are lining up against the ban on inefficient light bulbs, particularly standard incandescent ones. To quote a quote:

What matters, from a public policy perspective, isn’t any given choice but the total amount of electricity I use (which is itself only a proxy for the total emissions caused by generating that electricity). If they’re really interested in environmental quality, policy makers shouldn’t care how households get to that total. They should just raise the price of electricity, through taxes or higher rates, to discourage using it.

Yes, this is the standard efficient-market argument. Sometimes that's appropriate - for example, a higher gas tax would probably be more effective than the CAFE standards in the long run. But you know what? It doesn't work in this case.

When I buy a light bulb, I see that $0.50 hundred-watt bulb on the shelf and I reflexively calculate that over the thousand-hour lifetime of the bulb it will actually cost me $40. (Yes, our marginal electricity rate in CA really is that high.) But that's because I'm a nerd who loves numbers.

When Glenn Beck sees that light bulb on the shelf, he sees nothing beyond fifty-cent bulb, and spins hysteria on his radio show about how the new efficient bulbs will cost FIFTY DOLLARS EACH!!! Never mind that the expensive bulbs he is talking about are a new, high-end LED product that will last forever, while there are lots of lesser, equally efficient bulbs that cost only $4 while saving at least $20 over their lifetime. He doesn't tell you that because he's malignantly stupid, and his audience is incapable of performing arithmetic. This particular style of bad judgment is something he consistently enables and encourages.

(Really - I had the misfortune of tuning into his show by accident and that's what he was going off about. It's impossible to listen to him for more than five minutes without a facepalm moment.)

The government needs to ban inefficient bulbs because the great majority of consumers will NEVER be able to make effective judgments about what the best bulb is for their purposes, and will ALWAYS be suckered by low up-front costs that conceal a high total cost of ownership.

This is one of many reasons I am a "big-gubmint librul".

Comments

[barbarian-rat.livejournal.com]

Just the other day in the SR Press-Democrat was an article about this very subject. They stressed that conventional incandescent light bulbs are not being banned. Manufacturers are being required to make them more efficient.

Time to change those 100 watt light bulbs

It's impossible to listen to him for more than five minutes without a facepalm moment.

True of him and all of his ilk.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I also run into the garbage about how a "free market will solve everything" - but that assumes rational actions on the part of the general public, and as you point out there's an awful lot of people out there who can't or won't do the math - or even accept someone else doing the math for them.

It absolutely shocks me how many people actively resist the concept of Total Cost of Ownership - whether it involves lightbulbs or cars. There are cases where I can understand that it might be necessary to pay more in the long run because a high initial cost is a barrier to entry - but being aware that's the choice one is having to make is valuable.

Everything in my apartment is CFL except for a couple of enclosed ceiling fixtures where they overheat and fail early - so there I use more-efficient halogen incandescents instead of the old-fashioned type. And for the people screaming about the inefficient bulb ban - there have been halogen incandescents on the market for some time now that meet the efficiency standards, so no one's "forcing" CFLs on anyone; it's just requiring more efficient incandescents, at minimum.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

I was initially outraged because I had heard it was a ban on "incandescent" bulbs which as you point out is totally false. IMHO halogens have the best light of all so it's hard to get upset.

Yet some people still manage to.

[danthered.livejournal.com]

Refer also here.

...

[dorisduke.livejournal.com]

Then there are folks like me who could not give a rats ass about up front cost or end costs. I am all about ambience and I much prefer the glow of an incandescent although we do have the more modern expensive bulbs in some applications where ambience is not a factor.

Re: ...

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

I've seen displays in various hardware/home improvement stores where they show the difference between various bulbs. I've seen stores that have FIVE different color temperatures of CFLs, some of which are visually indistinguishable from incandescent. And even if for some reason you object to those - there's the Philips Halogena - an example of a high efficiency halogen incandescent that's been on the market for years now, and other major bulb manufacturers (like GE) are bringing out their own versions.

I suspect the biggest problem with this change is that there hasn't been enough information on the alternatives put out effectively that idiocies like "they're banning incandescent bulbs" keep circulating.

Re: ...

[danthered.livejournal.com]

See my comment to bluebear2 below.

Re: ...

[broduke2000.livejournal.com]

Sir, are you using my partner's name in a negative manner?

[chefxh.livejournal.com]

They'll get my incandescent when they pry it from my cold dead socket!

(Not really. I love halogen.)

[danthered.livejournal.com]

See my comment to bluebear2 below.

[bluebear2.livejournal.com]

Most Canadians I know long for the pre-Mulroney days before they forced the "free" market economy nonsense on us. It really has been a mistake overall. Also the concentration of media ownership thing is still a problem. What are we planning to do about that?

One thing that might satisfy the free market types is instead of a simple ban on inefficient models, just have them rated and required to list their energy usage on the package. In Canada with appliances, there's a big "EnerGuide" sticker with how many kilowatt hours it will use per year. Then you can compare them and make that part of the calculation.
Maybe for light bulbs there can be something similar so that when you see the LED bulb next to the incandescent you can see the difference. You'd still have to calculate by how much a kWh costs in your area but it would help.

Having said all that I'm disappointed in compact fluorescents. Too dim, take too long to get up to brightness, don't last very long, etc. At some point I'll get some nice LED fixtures happening.
I'm told that it's better to get a dedicated LED fixture rather than an LED bulb that plugs into an existing socket. I forget why. I think it's that the better quality LEDs only get used in the dedicated fixtures.

[danthered.livejournal.com]

Most CFLs available to consumers are garbage. Get GE Reveal CFLs, the 23w = 100w variety. After the initial 20-minute burn-in, they come up to full intensity fast and their light quality is all but indistinguishable from a good halogen incandescent -- definitely not the pinkish-green or bluish-purple light from most other CFLs.

[bluebear2.livejournal.com]

This is good to know. The experience I had was with Noma brand (and some others) and they burnt out in less than a year after paying almost $8 for each one. This was for a bathroom vanity fixture and after going through two batches of them I ended up just getting dollar store incandescents which are still going strong. The bathroom lights are only on for short periods of time so not the best candidate anyway if it's a power saving reason.

[danthered.livejournal.com]

consumers will NEVER be able to make effective judgments about what the best bulb is for their purposes, and will ALWAYS be suckered by low up-front costs that conceal a high total cost of ownership

On the one hand, you give consumers far too much faith and credit. In most cases it doesn't rise to the level of their being unable to make effective judgements et cetera et cetera; rather, they simply don't care. High-minded concepts like total cost of ownership is not on their radar because they are basically shortsighted and self-centred and greedy and have the attention span of a gnat with untreated ADHD.

On the other hand, that (shortsighted, self-centred, greedy, etc.) is a very supportable definition for "consumer", isn't it…!

[broduke2000.livejournal.com]

Basically, Glen Beck and other Fox news reporters cater to an audience with an IQ lower that a 25 Watt lightbulb. (Incandescent)

[oscarlikesbugsy.livejournal.com]

I screw in my CFLs and I think, "The GOP prolly already fried the planet, but at least I can go out with a good conscience, boots, and sensible lighting."

I have to look for these GE reveal CFLs - I just wasted money on "bright white", which are great for something like a chandalier, but suck otherwise, in terms of matching sunlight, say.