The passing of another stop-gap massive spending bill that probably no member of Congress knows the contents of us hardly a cause for any sort of celebration. If they had let the government shut down for a while, I would have drunk a toast in their honor. The fact that Congress is so inept and so incapable of legislating that they repeatedly find themselves in in these do or die legislative crises is beyond deplorable.

Regarding the light bulb situation, my response amounts to So F'n What.

Full disclosure I don't have any 100 watt lightbulbs in my house. Though I may still have a couple in the garage. They're great in that sort of utility situation but for general lighting in the house I'd rather use 2 or 3 60 watt bulbs than a single 100. You get as much or more light spread more evenly around the room. 

For me the issue is not about the practical impact of not having a particular light bulb on the market. It is about the fact that I am not free to make that choice. I am aware that there are compact florescent bulbs available for me to purchase. I know that even though they cost more they are allegedly more efficient and have a longer lifespan. Over time the savings on my electric bill should at least make up for the higher cost. Allegedly.

I have had some CFLs in the past. I dislike them immensely. I don't like waiting for them to come to full brightness and once they get there, the quality of the light is ugly. I have had them. I have used them. I do not like them.

Thus I choose to use incandescent bulbs. I choose them because I like them better. They come on at full strength and and, even if it's just from years of conditioning, I like the light they give off. They don't last as long but they are relatively inexpensive to replace.

The most meaningful phrase in all of that lighting discussion is "I choose to use." I am, for a little while longer apparently, free to choose what sort of lightbulb I use in my home.

If we accept as a matter of course the loss of the freedom to choose the lightbulb we wish to use, then where is the limit to how much liberty the government can take from us?

This temporary delay of the lightbulb ban is both meaningless and venal. Either the federal government has the authority to regulate and control our lives to the point where they are dictating what lightbulb we must use or they don't. Where are the members of Congress who will stand up for individual liberty and put a stop to this?

Congress achieved nothing with this stay of execution for the incandescent bulb. As usual the liberty and freedom of individual Americans was used as a political bargaining chip. We are supposed to be grateful to them for this temporary easing of the government boot to our necks. To hell with that. And to hell them.

I had a further thought on the practical implications of the postponement of the the lightbulb ban but since I really wanted to frame the issue in terms of government eliminating our freedom to make even the most basic choices in our lives I'm putting it in the extended entry below.

What would you do?

You could ramp up production of 100 watt and 75 watt bulbs in the third quarter of 2011 in hopes that you can cash in on people beginning to stockpile bulbs in the fourth quarter. If you forecast the need correctly you could see a nice spike in sales and not get stuck with an inventory that is illegal for you to sell at the end of the year. Eventually people will start buying 60 watt bulbs as replacements so that part of your business will grow. You could ride that 60 watt wave for a while, until the ban of them kicks in and you go out of business.

You could phase out production of 100 and 75 watt bulbs in the second half of 2011 in the expectation that your business for 60 watt bulbs will grow dramatically once the bigger bulbs are banned. You could ride that 60 watt wave for a while, until the ban of them kicks in and you go out of business.

Whatever you do, the one certainty is that you can't face legislation like this without a plan to maximize your profit opportunities and minimize the losses the legislation causes.

So imagine your an incandescent lightbulb manufacturer and you have thought long and hard; studied, worried, consulted experts and eventually came up with a plan to survive the impact of the ban without losing everything. You put that plan in place. Maybe it involves making some investments. Maybe it involves cutting your workforce a little. Then, two weeks before the first phase of the ban kicks in, they pass a new bill that delays the ban for another nine months.

What do you do?

How do you plan for that? 

Will they kill the ban completely by then? Will they delay it again? For how long? Or will they let it take effect?

If you can imagine yourself in that position and understand how difficult it would be, you now understand the meaning of "regulatory uncertainty."

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