Need a Light Bulb? Uncle Sam Gets to Choose: Virginia Postrel

June 10 (Bloomberg) -- If you want to know why so manyAmericans feel alienated from their government, you need only goto Target and check out the light bulb aisle. Instead of thecheap commodities of yesteryear, you’ll find what looks likeevidence of a flourishing, technology-driven economy.

There are “ultrasoft” bulbs promising “softer soft whitelonger life” light, domed halogens for “bright crisp light” androw upon row of Energy Smart bulbs -- some curled in the by-now-familiar compact fluorescent form, some with translucent shellsthat reveal only hints of the twisting tubes within.