Author Topic: Washers That Don’t Wash and Dryers That Don’t Dry  (Read 1499 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

famousdayandyear

  • Guest
Washers That Don’t Wash and Dryers That Don’t Dry
« on: September 18, 2013, 11:34:51 pm »
http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/joncgabriel/washers-that-don%E2%80%99t-wash-and-dryers-that-don%E2%80%99t-dry

Washers That Don’t Wash and Dryers That Don’t Dry
By Jon Gabriel on September 18, 2013

We had to replace our 12-year-old washer and dryer a while back.

“What a compelling lead sentence, Jon! I can’t wait to see how this cliffhanger ends!” Don’t worry, I’ll get to the point soon.

Appliances

Since our old appliances were bargain basement, no-frills models, we thought we’d treat ourselves to something a little higher-end. The cheapest new units were double what we paid a dozen years ago and they had fewer features. The really expensive units looked nice, but behind the bells and whistles they felt plastic and cheap.

The middle-aged salesman shocked me with his honesty. “These new models have some nice features,” he said, “but they probably won’t get your clothes as clean as your old basic washer.” He told me that customers complained all the time, but there was nothing he could do. Government regulators insisted on “high-efficiency” washers and dryers; manufacturers (and salesmen like him) had to comply.

From washing machines to microwaves to refrigerators, government regulations are making consumer goods far more expensive while reducing their effectiveness and longevity.

The Department of Energy claims that their new appliance standards save consumers money through reduced environmental costs and energy use. But a recent study by the Mercatus Center confirms shows that you and I don’t see that extra money in our wallets.

As the infographic shows (click to expand), the environmental “savings” are often exceeded by the costs they impose on consumers. And when the U.S. government calculates the environmental benefits, they include estimated benefits to everyone on earth — not just the American consumers who pay the higher price.

You see, the government thinks we’re all stupid. Or, in their more polite terms, “irrational.”

    Regulators believe that consumers make irrational choices when purchasing appliances because they often choose to forgo lower energy bills in the future to pay a low purchase price for an appliance upfront. By forcing consumers to buy higher-end appliances they wouldn’t otherwise buy, regulators believe that they are conferring a benefit by protecting consumers from their own irrational choices.Justifying regulations based on the premise that consumers are irrational is a dangerous precedent. It sets up government agencies to regulate based not just on market failure but also on personal failure.

If I had my way, I would buy, say a $300 washer that would last me another 12 years. According to my betters, this is crazy talk. Instead, government wants me to buy a $900 washer that doesn’t work as well and will die after six years. That is the rational decision — to a Beltway bureaucrat at least.

In a free country, I could purchase the appliance I want with the features I want at whatever price the salesman and I agreed upon. As long as Washington insiders consider freedom “irrational,” citizens like you and I need to watch them like hawks and hold them accountable.

Follow Jon on Twitter at @ExJon.

Offline happyg

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11,820
  • Gender: Female
Re: Washers That Don’t Wash and Dryers That Don’t Dry
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2013, 02:51:47 pm »
I paid around $600 for my washer and dryer 15 years ago. Nothing has gone wrong with either. Even if something were to happen to it, I could probably fix it myself. It's the same way with cars, most of us could repair the old cars that had carburetors and basic engines. Now, I have no clue, so the garages makes big bucks!

Online mountaineer

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 78,123
Re: Washers That Don’t Wash and Dryers That Don’t Dry
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2013, 12:45:08 am »
I paid around $600 for my washer and dryer 15 years ago. Nothing has gone wrong with either. Even if something were to happen to it, I could probably fix it myself. It's the same way with cars, most of us could repair the old cars that had carburetors and basic engines. Now, I have no clue, so the garages makes big bucks!
Amen. I had a 1971 Plymouth Duster in college that was a snap to maintain. I changed the oil, lightbulbs and all the filters myself. There were no fancy electronics, no computers, just a huge trunk, big bench seats and 22 mpg.

Wow, do I wish I had that car!
Support Israel's emergency medical service. afmda.org

Offline happyg

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11,820
  • Gender: Female
Re: Washers That Don’t Wash and Dryers That Don’t Dry
« Reply #3 on: September 25, 2013, 12:53:56 am »
Amen. I had a 1971 Plymouth Duster in college that was a snap to maintain. I changed the oil, lightbulbs and all the filters myself. There were no fancy electronics, no computers, just a huge trunk, big bench seats and 22 mpg.

Wow, do I wish I had that car!

I remember the Dusters. Lots of good cars back then. I had a 67 Ford Thunderbird who I gave to my grandson. He couldn't get it started, so I took the breather off, poured a tad of gas in carburetor, held the fly open with a screwdriver, and the car started right up. I told him to run the H out of it on Interstate to burn off the carbon, and he came back with a huge smile on his face. 

Oceander

  • Guest
Re: Washers That Don’t Wash and Dryers That Don’t Dry
« Reply #4 on: September 25, 2013, 01:38:54 am »
Amen. I had a 1971 Plymouth Duster in college that was a snap to maintain. I changed the oil, lightbulbs and all the filters myself. There were no fancy electronics, no computers, just a huge trunk, big bench seats and 22 mpg.

Wow, do I wish I had that car!

I had the coupe version, the Plymouth Scamp, when I was in high school.  Had the 225 cid slant six; now that was a hard-to-kill engine.  The only thing I would definitely not want to deal with anymore on that car are the points.  The distributor was on the underside of the slant, right up against the wheel well; if you weren't really careful the screw holding the points in could drop down into the distributor.

That being said, new cars are qualitatively better than the old cars in many ways.  For one thing, the engines are both substantially more efficient and much more durable than the older engines.  Old odometers only went to 99,999 because it was uncommon for an engine to get that many miles before it had to be replaced/rebuilt.  Now odometers all have 6 digits - up to 999,999 - because it's routine for engines to get well over 100,000 miles.

Of course, that improvement does come with a price:  the electronics have now become blackboxes that can't be read unless one has diagnostic tools that can easily cost more than $1,000.  Being able to read the diagnostics from the engine's computers is very important, as is the ability to clear those logs, as I learned this past week-end when my neighbor, who is a mechanic, fixed a bad miss on my engine by clearing the diagnostic error logs and revving the engine enough to reset the sensor.  I would never have found that in a month of Sundays on this car - a 1999 Grand Marquis - but I probably could have fixed it over the weekend on my old 1971 Plymouth Scamp.

Offline Atomic Cow

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 18,221
  • Gender: Male
  • High Yield Minion
Re: Washers That Don’t Wash and Dryers That Don’t Dry
« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2013, 01:40:59 am »
I had to pay almost $850 for a washer that was comparable to my 15 year old one after it literally flew apart and was just not economically fixable.  The cheaper washers don't clean worth crap.  Most use a spray or mist of water to rinse instead of actually filling the drum with water.
"...And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange, even to the men who used them."  H. G. Wells, The World Set Free, 1914

"The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections." -Lord Acton

Offline happyg

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11,820
  • Gender: Female
Re: Washers That Don’t Wash and Dryers That Don’t Dry
« Reply #6 on: September 25, 2013, 01:43:21 am »
I have a 2011 Focus SEL. Love it. I took it in for a 3000 mile oil change, and the book said I only needed to do it every 5000 miles. That's a little savings. LOL!

Online mountaineer

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 78,123
Re: Washers That Don’t Wash and Dryers That Don’t Dry
« Reply #7 on: September 25, 2013, 12:19:06 pm »
I have a 2011 Focus SEL. Love it. I took it in for a 3000 mile oil change, and the book said I only needed to do it every 5000 miles. That's a little savings. LOL!
We have a 2014 Subaru, and oil changes are recommended every 7,500 miles, so that's a good thing.
Support Israel's emergency medical service. afmda.org