Four years ago, I wrote about how dishwashers don’t work very well because of foolish red tape from Washington.
The clever folks at the Competitive Enterprise Institute put together a video on the topic.
I especially like the fake commercial at the start of the video.
But I don’t like the way my dishwasher performs.
And Jeffrey Tucker of the American Institute for Economic Research shares my disdain.
American dishwashers used to work. They were wonderful labor-saving devices. They kept our kitchens cleaner. They sanitized the dishes, helping to stop cross-contamination and generally improving health over the iffy process of handwashing. …Then one day they just stopped doing the work. What happened?
…Dishwashers used to wash all the dishes in under one hour. Now they take two hours, three hours, and four hours, and still don’t get the dishes clean. …All of this is directly due to government regulations. …Now everything comes out foggy and spotted. This is true no matter which dishwasher you get. …None of this has really hurt the dishwasher industry. Sales have consistently risen for the last ten years. My theory is that people are buying replacements, thinking (rationally) that they just need a newer model. What consumers don’t know, and what manufacturers don’t want to admit, is that they no longer work. The older the model, the more likely it is to be operational.
Here’s the most astounding factoid.
One in five homes have just stopped using their dishwashers altogether.
And here’s the bottom line.
These regulations have caused an infuriating and devastating degradation of the quality of appliances and the quality of life in our homes.
I agree. In my home, I don’t bother putting items in the dishwasher until I’ve thoroughly rinsed them. Otherwise, I’ll find food residue and have to wash them again.
Here’s a chart from the Competitive Enterprise Institute on the average cycle time of dishwashers. As you can see, modern dishwashers take much longer because they do such a poor job.
Since I generally run my dishwasher before heading to bed, I’m not particularly worried about how long it takes.
I just want clean dishes at the end of the process. But that’s now much more difficult because of government.
If you want more examples of the regulatory state’s war on modern life, there are plenty of examples.
[…] Crummy dishwashers […]
[…] year, I shared this video from the Competitive Enterprise Institute to help explain how government bureaucrats are making it […]
[…] year, I shared this video from the Competitive Enterprise Institute to help explain how government bureaucrats are making it […]
[…] Crummy dishwashers […]
[…] year, I shared this video from the Competitive Enterprise Institute to help explain how government bureaucrats are making it […]
[…] year, I shared this video from the Competitive Enterprise Institute to help explain how government bureaucrats are making it […]
I have Bosch but i checked some US stores and my model does not exist there.
I wondered why my dishwasher took 2 hours. But it works as advertised (cleans dishes), though you have to plan well ahead if you need clean dishes. On washers, since your article in 2011, I think they have improved. I have a Kenmore HE top load washer purchased in 2014 that still works like a charm. Best washer I’ve ever had. And your article on light bulbs from 2009 is a bit out dated. At that time, I would agree, but technology has surpassed government meddling. I would not replace my LEDs with the older types.
So our innovation and technology can still trump (no pun intended) the government nannies. Though my original dribbling shower: I took care of that, but toilets are still two or three flushes, so where’s the savings there?
Central planners never get it right. When will the left ever learn? Oh, they won’t. They still think they’re smarter.
“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Ronald Reagan
Are US dishwashers different from Europe? i have mine on a 60 min time and works ok.
Reblogged this on Gds44's Blog.
1987 was also the year prohibitionist asset-forfeiture tanked the economy and lawmakers listened to the anti-freon fanaticism. That was the belief that freon and other useful gases caused misanthropic ozone holes to appear where there are no people, like over volcanoes in Antarctica, pop.<1000 in the Southern hemisphere where 1/9 of humanity resides, rather than in the Northern hemisphere where 89% of Earth´s population used low-pressure freon to keep food from spoiling and grandma from dying. Are government-mandated ACs and refrigerators better or worse?