Canada's Light Bulb Ban

The Ban On Light Bulbs.

I'm not sure why but big government likes to bully the incandescent light bulb. Effective January 1^st, 2014 the 100 watt and 75 watt incandescent light bulb can no longer be manufactured in Canada. Why? Because big brother (or would it be the Nanny state???) has decided it so. You see those light bulbs are inefficient and we could never as Individual Canadians figure this out on our own so we must be forced to accept this. The Conservative government claims to support the free market but what about this? I'm not an economist but I'd venture a guess that there was and is a huge market for the incandescent light bulb. Efficiency isn't everything.

Only the market should determine when something should go out of production. Candles were replaced by light bulbs because light bulbs-the incandescent light bulb was superior. No banning was required. Candles still exist but now serve a much smaller role in our lives. We have them for candle light dinners, candle light Christmas eve services at church or we use them during power outages. We also use them to make the house smell nice. In fact the later use is probably the most common. Had candles been banned when light bulbs became widely available then the entire industry that makes scented candles would not exist. Those jobs wouldn't either.

Sometimes you need a particular kind of light bulb for a particular job. The light bulb ban ignores this. Many things in life are similar in this way to light bulbs. Imagine banning dump trucks, tractor trailers and other trucks of a larger size, because they weren't as fuel efficient as a 1/2 ton. Both the bigger type of truck and the smaller type can haul loads of material. You can haul gravel with a 1/2 ton truck or with a dump truck. The 1/2 ton has better fuel efficiency. No one would debate that but if you need several tons of gravel you have to make several trips with the 1/2 ton truck vs 1 trip with the dump truck and given the option almost everyone will choose the dump truck. Different types of vehicles for different types of jobs.

So it goes with the light bulb. We all have different lighting needs and uses for light bulbs. The ban on incandescent bulbs assumes all light bulbs are used for urban or suburban houses, inside, in the summer time and it forces everyone else “into the dark”. The market on the other hand caters to everyone, it is voluntary and it creates wealth.