Water Wackos Are Going after Your Dishwasher

Gary North reports in his newsletter:

Next year, the nanny state is going to force dishwasher manufacturers to
sell only wimpy dishwashers: 5 gallons per load.

                        Kiss moderately clean dishes goodbye.

                        Unless you buy hard-to-find phosphate-based dishwasher detergents, you kissed really clean dishes goodbye in 2010.

                        Imagine this scene:

                        "Hey, buddy. Could I interest you in some discreet photos of nude dishes? Or
maybe you are in the market for some -- how should I say this? --
special-interest items not available to the general public? How about
something that raises Al Gore's temperature? How about some dishwashing
detergent with a little extra something? "

North goes on at his site:

This is from my friend Jeff Tucker. 

The regulation in question is “Energy Conservation Standards for Dishwasher, 77 FR 31918.” You can spend the day reading the history’s most obtuse bureaucratese, complete with legislative history and technical detail, along with testimony for and against and the Department of Energy’ final judgement. Or you can just internalize my summary: get used to hand washing your dishes. As of May 2013, dishwasher manufacturers are not going to be allowed to make or sell a machine that works. 

Why do this? Why, water consumption. This will save water. 

Right. 1.5 gallons per day per family.

The problem with these water wackos is that they don't understand marginal utility. They are acting as though the use of water by consumers is always unlimited in a free society and must be planned by a central government body. They don't get that use is regulated on the free market. The price system tells us just fine, where we should be using products and where we shouldn't. If water did become a much scarcer commodity, the price of water would go up, limiting its use.

By interfering in the free market, the water wackos are simply distorting the economy and lowering our standard of living. In this case, by making it more difficult to clean our dishes.

Bottom line: The water wackos are all wet.