Stick This In Your Pipe and Smoke It

First the government in their infinite wisdom decided that analog TV was bad for America. You have to convert to Digital or you won't have a signal. Have you ever watched snow? Now all you have to do is go out and get yourself a sweet little converter box. But wait, it's not free. Still you can get that neat little coupon from the government. Yay! Oops. The box is still going to cost you about $20. OK. It's doable. If you have Twenty dollars to spend...

OR. You can go out and purchase yourself a brand spanking new, oh so shiny, fresh out of the box, still warm from the soldering, Flat screen, LCD or Plasma TV from your neighborhood Wal-Mart or Best Buy if you've got a credit card, because we're keeping the economy going, Right?

Ok, so now you have your brand spanking new, oh so shiny, ect. TV and find that your power bill is going up. Why? Because the new LCD takes about 43% more power to run. Ooh and that Plasma just cost you 75% more power! Oops, what can we do about that? I know! In comes government again to help us out of our quandary. California is debating whether to require energy standards on televisions just like the energy standards for other appliances in your home. Like your refrigerator or coffee maker. Thank God for government. If it weren't for them your power bill would likely go up twelve to eighteen dollars per year. Whew! And here I was thinking that the people could decide what to buy and what not to buy all on their own. Too bad for those people selling electronics. TV prices go up and the selection gets smaller. They could lose out on a lot of money and jobs in California. But who needs those jobs, the economy in California is fine. They've got a balanced budget and they don't need that tax revenue anyway. They're protecting the little guy. Right?

Did I mention that you will still be able to buy the TV's online from places like Amazon? So who wins in this? Ask your local government. They know what's best for you anyway.