• spujb@lemmy.cafeOP
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    10 months ago

    “[bulb manufacturers participated in the cartel] in order to keep electricity cheap for everyone”

    this is the statement i am arguing against. i apologize if i gave any impression to the contrary. i think at this point we both agree that it was a decision made toward multiple ends, not just one.

    secrets elon’s sandwhich is a secret because what he eats is personal information. that is in no way related to key market information about products, to which consumers have some kind of right, given the concept of the rational actor. does that right cover a cartel? i don’t know, but i feel like, given the evidence, it should.

    carbon emissions

    this is why my sadness about reporting comes in. we don’t know that it reduced net carbon emissions. all we know is it reduced carbon emissions from the electricity used to power bulbs. but what about carbon emissions from the massive increase in production of bulb units? does it offset? more than carbon, what about the material waste of increasing the volume of largely unrecyclable material within the market? these are huge questions that most of the reporting kind of skims over for the sake of ‘planned obselesence bad’ :(

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      secrets elon’s sandwhich is a secret because what he eats is personal information.

      Public Companies are required to disclose almost nothing. Private companies don’t have to disclose anything.
      This is what Google is required to disclose: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000165204423000045/goog-20230331.htm
      They don’t even have to say how much money they make from Google Play Services. They don’t disclose partnerships with manufactures. Nothing. Anything reported is dug up by investigative journalists or if Google thinks they can get positive public reaction from something they will issue a press release. They aren’t secrets. They just aren’t required to publish the information.

      we don’t know that it reduced net carbon emissions.

      Wikipedia says it does. I quoted it earlier. If we assume the entire manufacturing cost of a bulb, ignoring profit and research/development creates carbon emissions, you have $1 worth of carbon emissions for the manufacture of a 100 watt bulb. If you run it until it burns out, it uses $16 in energy. When the Phoebus cartel was operating, there was no solar, wind or nuclear. It was all oil, gas and coal.

      what about the material waste of increasing the volume

      Do you think LED bulbs should be banned? They are far more toxic than tin, paper thin glass and a milligram of tungsten (which is non toxic).