Washington Post:
WINCHESTER, VA. — The last major GE factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the United States is closing this month, marking a small, sad exit for a product and company that can trace their roots to Thomas Alva Edison’s innovations in the 1870s.
The remaining 200 workers at the plant here will lose their jobs.
“Now what’re we going to do?” said Toby Savolainen, 49, who like many others worked for decades at the factory, making bulbs now deemed wasteful.
During the recession, political and business leaders have held out the promise that American advances, particularly in green technology, might stem the decades-long decline in U.S. manufacturing jobs. But as the lighting industry shows, even when the government pushes companies toward environmental innovations and Americans come up with them, the manufacture of the next generation technology can still end up overseas.
The rest here.
Guess I better start stockpiling incandescent light bulbs now. The CFL's make me physically ill. They give me headaches and make me nauseous. Plus the light is terrible and makes it hard to read. Don't get me started on the horrible buzzing sound they make as well. I can't stand those nasty things.
Its a great example of government regulation making a terrible product that should have failed the standard fare for the masses. There are so many things that are wrong with CFL's that if we actually had a free market they would have never gotten to where they are today.
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