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"...in this period of economic uncertainty and growing unemployment, the replacement of our usual bulbs has cost a lot of jobs. General Electric, for example, has closed factories in Kentucky and Ohio and has recently announced it is closing its major incandescent factory in Winchester, Va. — a factory that employed 200 of our fellow Americans and the last major incandescent manufacturing facility in the United States. That’s good news for China and other countries that will take up the slack with CFL manufacture..."
Opinion : Lights out for <br />incandescent bulbs and <br />hundreds of American jobs - Eastern Arizona Courier (http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2010/10/06/opinion/editorials/doc4cab798e22f4c928532554.txt - broken link)
Three House Reps are trying to repeal Subtitle B of Title III of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 — the phase-out of the incandescent bulb.
The reason these new high efficiency bulbs and the new LED and Organic plastic light sources will be made in China or Korea is not the US government but the EXECUTIVE SUITES OF GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY and GTE-SILVANIA COMPANY . This is where the decision was made to make these lamps in China or Korea eventhough the patents for these light sources were earned by American inventors who in most cases don't even have careers anymore at these companies. Why should GE keep such people on the payroll when its future is no longer in manufacturing but in finance the future of GE is GE CAPITAL an investment bank. So GE will get rid of such operations like its locomotives(the Chinese who are building 40,000 miles of high speed rail want and will will get this division) and jet engine business just like it got rid of GE Plastics (sold to the Saudi's) and GE's engineered materials Division.
Hi my friend You know how I feel about all of this?, not directed towards you of course.
We won't raise chickens any more, in fact Americans will no longer be needed to go to work. The gubbermint will provide us with all (the cheese and crackers) we'll need purchased from other countries.
I'd move away from this type of dictator-shipped obama-ism socialism before accepting that!
Be well
I always kept Mexico in the back of my mind for a possible "flee from" location when the United States got to overbearing to bear. However, now Mexico has its serious problems in the form of murderous drug cartels, so I have no place left. Not without taversing an ocean or two. It's a very scary thought, that's for sure.
not a good comparison. First off, at the time the buggy was replaced with motorized vehicles, those motorized vehicles were still produced within this country (USA). Secondly, there is still a valid need for traditional bulbs over fluorscent bulbs. Exterior lighting in cold weather works best with traditional bulbs over fluorescent bulbs because the fluorescent lights don't put out the same amount of light in cold temperatures. Then third problem with your comparison is when the switch was made from horse and buggy to motorized vehicles, it was not a US government mandate by Congress. It was the result of free market capitalism. The same thing was happening gradually with the light bulbs. Though long since outdated, there are still people who ride a horse and buggy. Though you may consider traditional bulbs to be outdated, I'm sure people in cold climates would like their traditional bulbs for outdoor lighting until they can make a low cost and better light LED bulb. And lastly, there are some people who get headaches from living and working in fluorescent lighted spaces. I'm sure they'd love to keep their traditional bulbs rather than spend $40 to $100 for an LED bulb, when they ever get it to throw light like a traditional bulb.
Industrial use LEDs are quite powerful with varied uses and applications in the industry. You can filter LEDS to give you any color light you want. I also wonder why the technology hasn't crossed over to commercial/consumer usage.
Yup more and more police cars have red/blue LED lights that are so bright they are almost seizure inducing, even in broad daylight.
not a good comparison. First off, at the time the buggy was replaced with motorized vehicles, those motorized vehicles were still produced within this country (USA). Secondly, there is still a valid need for traditional bulbs over fluorscent bulbs. Exterior lighting in cold weather works best with traditional bulbs over fluorescent bulbs because the fluorescent lights don't put out the same amount of light in cold temperatures. Then third problem with your comparison is when the switch was made from horse and buggy to motorized vehicles, it was not a US government mandate by Congress. It was the result of free market capitalism. The same thing was happening gradually with the light bulbs. Though long since outdated, there are still people who ride a horse and buggy. Though you may consider traditional bulbs to be outdated, I'm sure people in cold climates would like their traditional bulbs for outdoor lighting until they can make a low cost and better light LED bulb. And lastly, there are some people who get headaches from living and working in fluorescent lighted spaces. I'm sure they'd love to keep their traditional bulbs rather than spend $40 to $100 for an LED bulb, when they ever get it to throw light like a traditional bulb.
You miss the forest while focusing on the trees.
In America, we applaud excellence, we expect our football teams to have the football players, our military to have the best equipment and most well trained soldiers, but when someone else makes a better bulb, we complain because our clinging to old technology? So today the alternatives to incandescent bulbs still suck in most cases, I get it and as I said before, they bug me too, not to mention they are an environmental hazard.
However I will not give applause to this idea that since new technologies aren't 100% better than current technologies that we should cling to old stuff. Thank the stars that Orville and Wilbur didn't have this attitude. Lets wait for someone else to develop a better mouse trap before we accept it, mindset is pathetic. Americans used to be hailed as great tinkerers, thinkers and innovators, and today it seems many are content to plop their great girth on a couch and wait for someone to create a low fat, better tasting hot pocket.
Makes a person wonder how badly the people in China are paying the price for their government using their labor to build their new found fortunes. I'm not a tree huger, but I think we need to take care of the earth, the land air and water.
The left says we cannot drill or mine here in America, but they let some third world country do it for us, and they pollute their land and poison their people. If we drilled here, or mined here, we would do it in a much more environmentally friendly way, unlike China of or portions on the African continent.
So many of the things the left complains about are the result of their own doing. We have so many coal-fired electrical power plants in America, because they would not let us build nuclear. The left complain that the US uses up too much of the world's resources, but it's the left that refuse to allow us to use our own resources.
They are just trying to redistribute the wealth (of pollution)!
Inferior isn't always better, even if it is made in China.
Originally Posted by Wapasha
The left... the left... the left
No - it is capitalism. General Electric supported the bill so they'd have an excuse to move production to Mexico and China - and get away from $30/hour labor in their US plants. GE makes more profit on higher priced CFL bulbs esp. if they can move production to lower cost countries.
"We look at our business as a global business," Fraser explained. "We make things where it is more efficient."
- GE Lighting spokeswoman Janice Fraser
But one worker, who went out of his way to talk to me, said the regulations are just a "scapegoat." GE wanted to send their jobs to Mexico, and the regulations provide political cover
In America, we applaud excellence, we expect our football teams to have the football players, our military to have the best equipment and most well trained soldiers, but when someone else makes a better bulb, we complain because our clinging to old technology? So today the alternatives to incandescent bulbs still suck in most cases, I get it and as I said before, they bug me too, not to mention they are an environmental hazard.
However I will not give applause to this idea that since new technologies aren't 100% better than current technologies that we should cling to old stuff. Thank the stars that Orville and Wilbur didn't have this attitude. Lets wait for someone else to develop a better mouse trap before we accept it, mindset is pathetic. Americans used to be hailed as great tinkerers, thinkers and innovators, and today it seems many are content to plop their great girth on a couch and wait for someone to create a low fat, better tasting hot pocket.
It does seem American industry has lost it's taste for technological innovation. The Japanese invented the robot assembly line and it was adopted here. Better quality and lower manufacturing costs. Robots don't make mistakes and require very little time off. On the issue of light bulbs, it's all corporate economics. I don't think you can blame the government of any administration for the current state of affairs. It was a business decision, pure and simple. As was posted in this thread, the patent for CFLs is owned by an American company but the CFLs are produced in China. Admittedly they do not work as well as standard bulbs but they make a profit for the American companies. Why would a company retool an existing plant in America when they can do a start up in China and manufacture the product for 50% less? As I stated in an earlier post, LEDs are capable of producing good, yellow light for home use if the companies chose to go that route, and that fact is really the elephant in the room concerning the light bulb issue. Offhand I can't think of a technological breakthrough the Chinese have invented in modern times but they are great copiers and producers. Basicly, we invent it and they manufacture it. Tarriffs won't change the dynamics either. Who wants to pay 4 bucks for a 100w lightbulb?
I get the concept that in America we are essentially a service based economy. Bob washes Toms car and Tom mows Bobs lawn. Money flows, economy works, all is well, kinda. Except that Bob is washing Toms car with a Greek sponge and a soap made in Mexico and Tom is mowing Bobs lawn with a lawnmower build in Korea and blades made in Canada. While our money is going back and forth, more and more of it leaves the country because of our growing dependence upon others to make things for us.
Sure we could make them here, but it is cheaper to make them there, as after all their workers make 1 dollar a day and even with the cost of shipping it to America, it is still cheaper than paying an American worker. American companies have no loyalty to the nation other than getting to call themselves "American", as one of the largest segments of growth in China is the building of American manufacturing plants using cheap Chinese labor (as well as other locations with cheap labor pools) However many see manufacturing as oh so 20th century, and beneath us, as after America is #1 (runs around the room obnoxious screaming while holding up finger) see... We have white collar jobs now, because we special
Too bad more and more white collar jobs are now being off shored, but we can always count on our technological innovations and ability, well other than in things like high tech light bulbs that is. Surely there are countless high technology jobs available in our booming high tech sector, I mean we should be able to just pluck these jobs from the technology tree, well if it weren't for that little issue with American kids graduating in fewer and fewer tech oriented fields, but hey, that Asian engineering student mowing my grass with his Korean made lawnmower that he drove here in his Ford truck which was mostly also made in Korea can help offset this problem.
Sorry, [/]sarcasm[/off] my bad. Just bums me out that technology seems one of the most logical places that this country should really be investing in heavily. Perhaps I just pine for those days when it seemed we not only made things but we invented things more prolifically than today.
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You know how I feel about all of this?, not directed towards you of course. 
