illegal to buy light bulbs...

[Dunkopf]

Quote:
Sadly, an honest person cannot be elected to the Presidency. Do you think any large amount of people would vote for a guy who said, "I promise to do everything within my power to dramatically downsize government, lower taxes, end unnecessary wars, and afterwards do as little as humanly possible?"

 

[JCoogle]

I guess I am going to have to stock up because that is what all my Bators and hatchers run off of.

 

[Q9]

Quote:
Jimmy Van Buren, right? No, wait...it was Dave! Dave Van Buren!

No, that's not right either.....

FWIW, you could probably have guessed that I'm an FDR fan.. I don't believe everyone should necessarily like everything he did -- especially in retrospect, since we modern-age people have always had things like child labor laws, overtime pay, electricity (for hillbilly people like mine

), and all the other stuff that FDR's administration accomplished -- but what I find most interesting to ponder is where we might be today, as a nation, had we elected someone who proposed to do "as little as humanly possible" in November of 1932.

Yikes.

I won't argue against the point that there's a time when it's a President's job to not screw things up, but instead to just apply a little grease to the cogs and pulleys of a strong economic machine as needed.. As it happened, though, 1932 just wasn't one of those times.. Some folks would disagree, I'm sure, but...well...all's well that ends well, and that particular era began what was almost certainly the fastest rise to power of any nation in the history of this planet. It was during and after FDR that The United States of America became "The Greatest Nation on Earth."

What I personally think history will show is that 2008 was another period in American history where a do-nothing President simply wasn't an option.


That's just me, though.

Actually, America was the greatest nation right from the start. It became the "greatest" as in the greatest superpower after WWII, but frankly, FDR nearly killed the country through his Communist-like control of the economy during the Depression and even worse during the War. Had it not been for Coolidge and Harding pumping cash into the economy in the '20s, there wouldn't have been a crash in the first place. If it weren't for Hoover's and FDR's obsession with controlling the economy, there wouldn't have been a Depression. Examples of doing nothing and succeeding abound in US history, for instance, the Crash of 1920-21. Harding did nothing except cut spending and taxes. The economy was hopping within the year. No recession ever approached the severity of the Depression, because presidents didn't attempt to micromanage the economy. Interestingly, the most stable the US economy has ever been were the times when there was no central bank in any form - no Bank of the United States, no Second Bank of the United States, and no Federal Reserve.

Trying to save the economy through government spending is a little like trying to repair a machine by shooting it.

Also, as for electricity, that probably would have been accomplished by the market absent any government intervention. I mean, come on, how could anyone resist that kind of cash? There were a LOT of country folks back then, which made a HUGE market. It probably would have happened in the same time span as well, but the government-caused Depression killed any chance of that.

Another interesting tidbit about FDR: In his New Deal, the vast majority of the funding went to states where the vote was not assured, even though those states were less impacted by the Depression. The South, which was quite secure, recieved the least funding, despite being the hardest-hit area. It's also a well-known fact that large numbers of people on government payroll in public works boondoggles were forced to vote Democrat, or they would lose their jobs.

2008 would have been an ideal year for a president to do as little as possible - unfortunately, people nowadays look at the president as some sort of demigod, expected to solve the nation's problems. Look what intervention has gotten us - we're currently on the road to a second depression, which some economists suspect may be known as the Greater Depression. Gerald Celente is predicting this. He's head of the Trends Research Institute, and he has never been wrong. Peter Schiff believes this, and he was one of the few economists to see the housing bubble for what it really was. He was literally laughed at when he predicted this recession in 2006, but he was RIGHT! The entire Austrian school of economics saw this crash coming, and Ludwig van Mises was the founder of that school of thought. He was the only economist of the '20s to predict the Great Depression.

Wow, total rabbit trail right there.

 

[Ang]

I found this article. It has some interesting information including exceptions.

http://homerepair.about.com/od/electricalrepair/ss/2007_energybill.htm

 

[Whispering Winds]

I decided that i was going to buy a few packs and store them . . .WM was VERY low on 100 Watt bulbs, so this just made me wonder . . .so going to put several packs back, but I have to admit, I use the curly ones, because they last so dang long and save on my electric bill. I have never broken one, but now I worry about throwing them in the trash . . .I have a client who use to be a manager of a waste management company, before he was hurt in a horrific accident and lost part of one leg, and he said he had to train his men on those things because of their toxins. Dang it, its always something.

 

[Dunkopf]

CFL's work great for most applications. They are useless when it's cold though. I have 2 300 watt bulbs in my garage. They do a great job. I only use them for short periods though. I can feel the meter spinning when I turn them on. I think the light from the CFL's is just fine. They are ugly though. Not good for decorative fixtures. It will be interesting to see if they actually outlaw incandescents. They will obviously still need some type of incandescent bulbs.

I fully agree on the commercial waste of electricity. It amazes me when you drive down the highway at 2AM and all these buildings have all their lights on. It has to be costing 10's of thousands per year. We turn off all our lights except for 1 CFL in the kids bathroom. They are afraid of going to the bathroom if the light isn't on. Never know what might be hiding in the toilet. Usually something smelly.

 

[Chic-Zebo Girl]

Very interesting thread, I admit I read pages 1-2 then jumped to last page so please forgive me if I am repeating another.

Chickens have been domesticated for something around 10,000 years right? So when did incandenscent light bulbs get in there? Last hundred years? I'm pretty sure we can keep our chickens without incandescent bulbs and still have eggs even in the winter.

 

[Dunkopf]

Our winters get down to -10 and I never use heat. We crack the ice out in the morning and refill the water as required. Never lost one to the cold. Proper ventilation is more important than heat. Keep the moisture level down.

 

[Q9]

Here in NC the winters aren't too bad, and we don't use lighbulbs for our birds. My issue with this is that it's unconstitutional and immoral. Congress has no Constitutional or moral right to force us not to buy specific products.

 

[RabbitMage]

Quote:
They're not forcing you to buy anything, as far as I can tell.