I am a big fan of the Back to the Future movies. Reading an article today by the Real Estate Journal made me think back to a scene in the second movie. Marty is in the future with Doc and sees an antique store. He goes inside and looks into buying a Sports Almanac. While he is leafing through it, the sales lady shows him a Dust Buster and comments how it was used in the “past”. I always laugh at this scene as it makes me wonder what will become an antique in my lifetime.

Apparently one item will be antique before I could even imagined. Start saving some of your incandescent lightbulbs…they are about to become history. According to the article, “The House and Senate are working on legislation that over the next seven years would phase out the conventional light bulb, a move aimed at saving energy and reducing man-made emissions believed linked to climate change“. I won’t get on my soapbox and tell you how much I hate something like this being “legislated” into law. In my opinion, if the people really want lower emission light-bulbs, it will happen all on its own. It is already starting to happen. We just don’t need the government making something into law that the free market is already handling quite well. There, I’ve said my peace.

The bill will have all conventional bulbs gone from the world market by 2014. By 2020, all lighting, no matter if a lamp in your house, or a ceiling light in your office, will have to be the kind “that can only be met by the compact fluorescents or other technologies that can match their efficiency“.
Bye-bye lightbulb. I will miss you. Of course the stores that sell lamps are loving this because everyone will have to buy new lighting sources because their “old” bulb lamps will no longer “work”. Oh, the power of lobby groups.

So my question is, once the current bulb is gone, what will happen to the jokes about how many people it takes to screw in a light bulb? Or what object will be shown when an idea is created? Only the government could ruin all our fun!

About the Author:

Leave A Comment