When purchasing any of the new CLF or LED bulbs, it’s not wise to pay for them with a check, credit, or debit card. Such purchases can be tracked. The bulbs all contain levels of hazardous materials, like mercury, that cannot be legally be thrown away.
As the economy continues to slide, bureaucrats will be desperate for funds to support their agencies. One of them will have a brilliant idea: “Our agency has a Congressionally mandated duty to protect the environment. And, we owe it to the nation to provide jobs. We can kill two birds with one stone.
First, we contract with some big, politically connected firm to write the software that lets us go through every credit card sale in the past ten years that involves the new light bulbs. We get their names, phone numbers, and addresses of those who’ve bought them.
Then, we’ll hire a lot of otherwise unemployable people, spend hundreds of millions training them, and have them pay visits to the bulb purchasers’ homes and workplaces. The “Home Inspectors” will be able to fine anyone who can’t show that the dangerous chemicals and materials in every single bulb they’ve purchased been properly disposed of. We’ll make billions in fines. It will be our duty to fine them at least a hundred dollars for every bulb they’ve bought and can’t account for.
And, while they’re in people’s homes, they could check for lots of things.”
Meanwhile, buy lots of incandescent bulbs. Pay cash.
