Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Lightbulbs - It's a scam

(re Australia's phase-out of incandescent lightbulbs) Ok, So there are no apparent victims, but it is the principle that matters the most. Intelligent citizens of democracies should always regard popular policies with very high degrees of suspicion. After all things like import quotas, tarriffs etc. are popular, but intelligent people know that they are basically scams. This scam is similar to our "Water-Wise" advertising scam. In this scam, local governments advertise how everyone should be saving water through the summer. Then, about a week after a severe downpour they advertise how little water everyone's been using and claim their water-wise campaign a huge success. Similarly, the government could have said they are phasing out film-type cameras (perhaps citing the energy intensive nature of producing the silver required in them or something) in favour of less polluting digital cameras. They could then advertise how little film is being used in Australia and claim their phase-out a raging success. Similarly with CRT TV's and LCD type ones. I guess the nature of this scam will be demonstrated by the comparison of incandescent lightbulb usage in Australia compared to a country that didn't advertise a phase-out. News items that feature a popular law change should be given the same regard as emails that tell you that you have won a prize. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is just good politics/marketing.

4 comments:

Dr Clam said...

Should trawl through old newspapers to see if there is any reference to courageous politicians c.1910 taking the initiative to clean the streets by 'phasing out horses'...

Anonymous said...

Look at the members of the comission that recommended the economic light bulbs! I would have done the same thing if I was a certain person with high interest in the matter. Or if my factory would produce those "good for environment" lightbulbs!!!

Katinka said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Katinka said...

" there are no apparent victims, but it is the principle that matters the most. Intelligent citizens of democracies should always regard popular policies with very high degrees of suspicion."

Well said...

I share your skepticism that this intitiative is just another political ploy to gain public favour, and appease concerns about the latest hot-topic, global warming (excuse pun).

ps(previous comment was from me; typo in my web address!
www.kitlinapai.wordpress.com)