Eh, the lightbulb thing was concocted by the Green Mafia as well as the high-end lightbulb companies (GE/Siemens/etc) who were being badly undercut by imported bulbs. As 'wasteful' as the tech is, it is dead simple and any third-world joint can build the things; that's not profitable if you are in business making jet engines in the other half of your corporate structure. So you get some senators on the horn, and start pimping your latest greatest 'improvement' on the light bulb, which costs several hundred times the .05$ cost of an incandescent (cha-ching!), doesn't last near as long since the electronics on board seem to die before the lighting element does, contains mercury and other toxic materials, and require a full-on recycling mandate to deal with them. Jobs all around (you know the kind).
LED has a lot more promise, but simple geometry has proved them to be a poor replacement; they simply don't have enough emitter surface area to properly light a large volume, so you get either focused harsh light or very spotty/dim coverage. At least they aren't all blue, anymore. And like I said earlier, despite the claims of longevity, the tech is evolving so rapidly you'll likely have to replace your purchase with something better within a year (assuming the crummy electronics which China still can't do as well as a tungsten filament haven't died)
I stockpiled about six boxes of 100W bulbs, which often last longer than the 'high tech' devices which replaced them (esp CCFL), and simply work better in every way (esp CCFL). Truly the 'vinyl record' of lighting; for the true connoisseur
. Felt positively Russian when I bought all the remaining boxes off the shelf shortly before the ban for stockpile, too.
My point is that the incandescents were banned because no one stood up for them, because the only beneficiaries were oblivious consumers (who still don't know about the ban, and just assume market forces made them disappear, or something) and foreign garbage manufacturers. Guns do not have this problem; the consumer is well informed and attentive, the manufacturers are here and have no desire to soak all us rubes (see: Colt and S&W in the '90s, the latter of whom learned its lesson), profits are already peaked, and there are no outside interests other than gun control interested in pushing smart guns who might eventually tag-team us.
TCB
