HOW MANY LEGISLATORS DOES IT TAKE...Byline: BILLY BAUMAN Local View IN one masterful stroke, Assemblyman as·sem·bly·man n. A man who is a member of a legislative assembly. assemblyman Noun pl -men a member of a legislative assembly Noun 1. Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, has established himself as the dim bulb of the California Legislature. Levine is pushing legislation that would outlaw standard (incandescent in·can·des·cent adj. 1. Emitting visible light as a result of being heated. 2. Shining brilliantly; very bright. See Synonyms at bright. 3. ) light bulbs. In their place, he'd force us to buy costly screw-in fluorescents. Levine's commitment to energy conservation and efficiency is admirable. But his path to a "brighter" future isn't the way to achieve it. His proposal is ill-conceived and rife with unintended consequences For the "Law of unintended consequences", see Unintended consequence Unintended Consequences is a novel by author John Ross, first published in 1996 by Accurate Press. -- government gone wild. Don't get me wrong. Compact fluorescent bulbs confer a number of benefits compared to traditional incandescents. They're more efficient, so they use less energy. And they last much longer, so their long-term cost of ownership is less than standard bulbs. The fundamental problem, though, is how far are we willing to let government intrude intrude, v to move a tooth apically. into our living rooms? Levine's proposal is the embodiment of the oppressive "nanny state nanny state n. Informal A government perceived as having excessive interest in or control over the welfare of its citizens, especially in the enforcement of extensive public health and safety regulations. ." In this misbegotten mis·be·got·ten adj. 1. a. Of, relating to, or being a child or children born to unmarried parents. b. Not lawfully obtained: misbegotten wealth. 2. model, government knows best and will dictate how we'll live, like it or not. So, for Levine, the subordination of free choice to his personal vision of "the common good" isn't a problem, notwithstanding its socialist overtones. But, hey, we're all for the common good. The problem with Levine's way of achieving it is that he creates as many problems as he purports to solve. First off, incandescent lights offer a much warmer and pleasing quality of light than do fluorescents, even so-called warm fluorescents. Homes lit with fluorescent lighting have a much colder and more inhospitable in·hos·pi·ta·ble adj. 1. Displaying no hospitality; unfriendly. 2. Unfavorable to life or growth; hostile: the barren, inhospitable desert. quality than those lit by incandescents. The "color rendering index" for fluorescents will always be lower than incandescents. That's just the way it is. Additionally, you may be interested to learn that, for graphic designers and visual artists, full-spectrum incandescent lighting is a requirement, not a luxury. Full-spectrum incandescents replicate the visual spectrum of sunlight, providing a critical evaluative tool for visual artists. What's Levine's answer to them? Well, we could get them a special exemption, perhaps. Can you imagine having to apply to the government to get a waiver to use a special type of light bulb? The way bureaucracies run, it could take years before your application was approved, assuming it would be in the first place. Although after a few years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time agencies supervising light-bulb use could implement a "fast track" process cutting the waiting time to a matter of months. Levine should well know that prohibition, such as he proposes, merely creates thriving secondary or black markets, whether for booze Booze sold cheap whiskey in a log-cabin bottle. [Am. Hist.: Espy, 152–153] See : Drunkenness , dope or light bulbs. Accordingly, Californians who prefer incandescent bulbs will merely buy them online from out-of-state suppliers, depriving California of needed sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. revenue and the circulation of locally spent money in our economy. What's more, screw-in fluorescents are orders of magnitude more expensive to buy than incandescents, regardless of their lower long-term cost of ownership. What about the economically challenged families in our state who can barely put food on the table, let alone spend $10 for a single bulb? Does Levine propose that they sit in the dark? How's that in the common good? Also, governments at any level typically have a poor record of picking winners and losers in the marketplace. People are free to buy screw-in fluorescents if they prefer at this very moment. In fact, sales have increased every year since the bulbs' introduction. So people who value the benefits of compact fluorescents can vote with their wallets, which they've done. Levine also fails to consider the unusually wide range of applications for incandescent light bulbs. What about the light bulbs in my refrigerator and clothes dryer, as examples? Am I going to have to fumble around in the dark because it's economically unfeasible for a manufacturer to replace the myriad special-use incandescents with fluorescents? Who will bother manufacturing the 7-watt incandescent for my bedside lamp bedside lamp n → lámpara de noche bedside lamp bed n → lampe f de chevet bedside lamp n → , or the special 25-watt chandelier bulbs for my dining room? And, of course, no law has meaning without enforcement. Are the Light Bulb Police going to bust through my front door because I "bootlegged" a light bulb from out of state? Can you imagine trying to administer enforcement of Levine's law? Well, he obviously hasn't. I can just see me in an interrogation interrogation In criminal law, process of formally and systematically questioning a suspect in order to elicit incriminating responses. The process is largely outside the governance of law, though in the U.S. chamber under the hot lights -- wait a minute, they're cool fluorescents. I'll never crack! |
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