In 2007, Congress imposed energy conservation standards that will ban ordinary incandescent light bulbs after 2014. The law intended to promote more efficient bulbs.
As a result, the last big General Electric factory that makes incandescent bulbs in the United States has now closed, putting its remaining 200 employees out of work. That’s obviously bad news for the workers at the Winchester, Va., plant, because they earned about $30 per hour.
Now, most of the production will take place in Communist China.
The spiral, energy-efficient bulbs “require more hand labor, which is cheaper [in China],” The Washington Post reported. “So … none of the major brands make [energy-efficient bulbs] in the United States.”
So Congress’ meddling forced jobs overseas (where manufacturing is dirtier to begin with) and put Americans out of work.
The more Congress “guides” the market, the more trouble it causes.