Capitalism vs. consumers: New regulation for American light bulbs, consumers win

The Hill reports that the government has imposed a new minimum LED bulb light output per watt of electricity put in: 

New standards for light-emitting diode (LED) lightbulbs announced by the Biden administration last week will likely mean measurable savings for American households, but experts say the bulbs last so long it may be years before consumers notice the benefits.

The Biden administration’s final rule for LED bulbs, announced Friday, more than doubles the energy efficiency requirements for the bulbs, taking them from 45 lumens (the unit of measurement for brightness) per watt to more than 120 lumens. The Department of Energy (DOE) has projected the rule will result in about $27 billion in total savings and prevent the release of 70 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over a 30-year period. 

Full enforcement of the new LED rule does not begin until 2029, but Vukovich said some manufacturers and retailers will likely take steps toward compliance before then.

The administration has pursued a broader strategy of tightening energy efficiency rules for appliances and lightbulbs, after the Trump administration loosened or declined to update many such rules. In 2019, the Trump Energy Department blocked a new lightbulb efficiency rule that was set to take effect the following January under a law signed by President George W. Bush in 2007.

A trip down memory lane 

I remember a time when simple competition among businesses would have led to something like more efficient LED bulbs becoming the norm. No government regulation would have been required. That is how my dad ran his business. When a new technology came along and because available, he adopted it for his customers. But by the 1960s, it appeared that simple competition among big businesses (and some, but not necessarily most medium or small ones) had morphed into simple collusion among businesses. 

Why, oh why, does the federal government have to issue any regulations at all when something like energy efficiency becomes possible, but it is not voluntarily adopted? That has been the case for home appliances for years. Most big businesses prefer not to pass any savings to consumers. If they adopt better technology, they charge more for it to capture as much of the value as possible. Preferably they charge for all of the value plus an added premium just for the joy of even more profit. And on top of that, many big businesses block consumers from being able to repair their products when they break. And, on top of all of that, many constantly bombard consumers with vast, well-funded propaganda campaigns designed to deceive and distract consumers from what is going on.

After all, an ignorant, deceived customer is a more profitable customer. That is core capitalist dogma. That dogma is almost as dominant as the #1 capitalist moral dogma, social conscience is subversive to profit, therefore operate with no or as little social conscience as possible.

Circling back to those light bulbs. Why did businesses not voluntarily adopt the more energy efficient technology? My guess is that a big part of the answer is that electric utility companies quietly paid light bulb companies to keep LED bulbs as inefficient as possible, as long as possible. As my AI friend Perplexity commentates in response to the question, did companies intentionally make incandescent light bulbs that burned out fairly fast to maintain revenues and profits?:

Based on the search results, it appears that companies did intentionally make incandescent light bulbs with a shorter lifespan in order to maintain revenues and profits. The key evidence is:

“Light bulbs are probably the most prominent example of ‘planned obsolescence’, which means that they are designed to only last for a given amount of time. The reason for this, was that in the early days of the light bulb, companies were able to make light bulbs that could technically last for centuries. Some of those bulbs still exist and have been burning continuously for more than a century! However, if all light bulbs lasted that long, after the market had been saturated, nobody would ever need to buy new lamps. Thus, the companies who made lamps decided to jointly sign an agreement that they would all make their lightbulbs less resilient, so that they would eventually break after around 1000 hours. This pact is known as the ‘Phoebus cartel’, and included manufacturers like Philips, Osram and General Electric.”

Ah yes, the good old Phoebus cartel. It has even got its own Wikipedia page! That is capitalism doing what it does best, (a) colluding while pretending not to collude, (b) shafting consumers while pretending not to, and (c) corrupting government while pretending not to. 

Q: Is unregulated big business capitalism (brass knuckles capitalism) mostly the friend, mostly enemy or mostly neutral to the consumer?

LED bulbs made to look like old-fashioned 

Edison filament bulbs