There was a time when buying a light bulb did not require government permission. Customer demand dictated market choices. You walked into a store, examined the alternatives, considered price and quality, and bought the one you wanted. The manufacturer wanted to sell it. The merchant wanted to stock it. You wanted to buy it. Three voluntary parties agreed; nobody else’s rights were violated, and that was the end of the matter.
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But that arrangement is incompatible with the agenda of California’s overlords.
Today, while shopping online, Californians routinely encounter a disturbing message: “This item cannot be shipped to your location.” Change the delivery address to Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, or another state, and suddenly the same perfectly ordinary product becomes available.
California has imposed restrictions against a growing number of appliances, light bulbs, faucets, showerheads, computers, televisions, air conditioners, pool equipment, gasoline containers, automotive products, and countless other ordinary goods. Energy efficiency, water consumption, emissions, chemical composition, and certification requirements have been deployed as the pretexts for these restrictions.
The premise of a free society is that individuals own themselves. They consequently possess the moral authority to make peaceful decisions concerning their own lives and property. The American government was designed to protect that freedom, not to restrict it.
If a Californian prefers a particular showerhead, air conditioner, or light bulb, why should a government bureaucrat stand in their way?
When consumers have liberty to choose, some may select a less-efficient appliance because it costs substantially less or prefer a particular light bulb because of its color, brightness, dimming characteristics, or longevity. Many want a higher-flow fixture simply because it works more efficiently, and most folks choose a gasoline-powered automobile because it is more practical than its electric alternative.
The regulator does not care about your circumstances because your circumstances are irrelevant. He gets his walking orders from politicians, not the people.
Defenders of these regulations will object that California is a democracy. Legislators are elected; governors are elected; therefore, regulations ultimately represent “the will of the people.” But despite wrapping each decree in noble intentions, no California politician ever won an election by campaigning to be an option destroyer. They were elected to serve the people — and not in the sense KFC serves chickens.
How many Californians ever voted on which showerhead they should be permitted to purchase? How many voted on allowable computer energy consumption? How many of us personally approved standards governing portable air conditioners, battery chargers, pool pumps, or replacement light bulbs? If you answered none, go to the head of your class.
The Founders understood that government power was dangerous precisely because tyrannical actions can be cloaked with good intentions. The Constitution was written to limit government because they understood that human beings entrusted with power would naturally seek more of it. It seems California regulators wake up every morning looking for new ways to defeat that premise.
If your neighbor buys an inefficient refrigerator and pays the resulting electric bill, you may consider his decision foolish. In a free society, you are entitled to think so. You may recommend a better refrigerator. Manufacturers may advertise efficient alternatives. Utilities may offer incentives. But it is an affront to liberty to subvert your neighbor’s decision merely because you believe your judgment is superior to his.
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Nonetheless, that is the foundation of public policy in the busybody state of California.
When every regulation is rationalized by some alleged social benefit, there is virtually no logical stopping point. Beyond dictating your light bulbs, state officials have already spread this authority to your television, your refrigerator, your automobile, your lawn, your washing machine, your computer, and even your thermostat setting.
The truth is, free markets already reward efficiency. Consumers generally prefer appliances that cost less to operate. Manufacturers have powerful incentives to produce them. A refrigerator using half the electricity of its competitor has a genuine selling advantage. An LED bulb lasting ten times longer than an incandescent bulb offers consumers something valuable.
No bureaucratic decree is necessary for people to recognize savings.
A free market permits competing values. One consumer may value efficiency most. Another may prioritize purchase price. Another durability. Another performance.
There is no universally correct answer because there is no universally identical consumer. That is precisely why liberty works.
America’s founding proposition was revolutionary because government was no longer deemed to be sovereign and the individual subordinate. The individual possessed rights preceding government, and the government was empowered to guard, not overrule, those rights.
People possessing intimate knowledge of their own circumstances should be free to make independent decisions. Otherwise, regulators impose a gradual reversal in the relationship between the citizen and the state.
Liberty rarely disappears in one dramatic act. More often it is surrendered through thousands of supposedly reasonable restrictions, each too insignificant to provoke resistance.
A government powerful enough to decide which light bulb belongs in your lamp has wandered remarkably far from its initial charge of protecting life, liberty, and property.
Californians do not need bureaucrats standing between willing buyers and willing sellers. Instead, they need government to perform the far more important function for which free governments are instituted: protecting peaceful citizens from force and fraud while otherwise leaving them alone to pursue their individual self-interests.
Jim Cardoza is the author of The Moral Superiority of Liberty and the founder of LibertyPen.com. Read more of his essays there.
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