The EU's ridiculous attempt to make us all poor by banning cheap, safe incandescent lightbulbs and forcing us all to buy mercury-filled, harsh fluorescent lamps was bad enough. That they then placed import tariffs on the energy-saving bulbs is beyond farce.
A commenter on "Devil's Kitchen" suggested that the reason might be because the EU's trade commissioner is an economic illiterate and suggested sending him some pointers.
So I did.
Commissioner Mandelson
DG Trade
European Commission
200 Rue de la Loi
B-1049 Brussels
BelgiumDear Commissioner,
I was bemused by recent press reports that the EU is simultaneously banning incandescent lightbulbs and placing import tariffs on low-energy replacements being sent from China.
If the Chinese wish to send us cheap goods, we should open our arms and accept the gifts with gratitude. I resent your efforts to keep the people of Europe poorer than we otherwise would be.
I am enclosing a copy of an essay, written in 1845, by French economist Frédéric Bastiat. It is as relevant today as it was then and I hope it proves illuminating.
Yours sincerely,
Richard G Brown
5 comments:
Good work. I always enjoy your letters.
Let us know if you get a response. I sent him a copy too, and a German translation to the German commissioner (Industry or something who no doubt was lobbying hard for Osram)
"...I hope it proves illuminating" - excellent :)
Quite ironic that when viewing this post on your blog Google Ads was offering me a whole range of different low energy lightbulbs :) A good demonstration of the fact that Google Ads obviously uses words in the post to determine which ads to show, but has no notion of context :)
That essay is cool. I especially like the sideways dig at British weather.
""...I hope it proves illuminating" - excellent :)" :-)
I wrote it without thinking and then spotted the pun. Decided to leave it in.
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