The same old story:
Some longtime users were furious.
“My dishes were dirtier than before they were washed,” one wrote last week in the review section of the Web site for the Cascade line of dishwasher detergents. “It was horrible, and I won’t buy it again.”
“This is the worst product ever made for use as a dishwashing detergent!” another consumer wrote.
Like every other major detergent for automatic dishwashers, Procter & Gamble’s Cascade line recently underwent a makeover. Responding to laws that went into effect in 17 states in July, the nation’s detergent makers reformulated their products to reduce what had been the crucial ingredient, phosphates, to just a trace.
Right. Notice that in the named example, the corporation changed its formulation to comply with state law. Now, notice how the journalist slides into talking about consumer choices:
Yet now, with the content reduced, many consumers are finding the new formulas as appealing as low-flow showers, underscoring the tradeoffs that people often face today in a more environmentally conscious marketplace.
A tradeoff occurs when people make a decision. In some places, low-flow shower heads are still a customer choice. Unlike, say, low flow toilets and incandescent light bulbs.
Your governments are hard at work to eliminate the trade-offs entirely by making sure you don’t get to trade dirty dishes for ungreen conscience. You just get the dirty dishes, citizen, and unless you want to expose yourself to future reeducation or loss of dishwasher privilege entirely, you will accept it.
(Link seen on Instapundit.)
One can only hope that the good White House china is similarly spattered. On the other hand, one can only suspect that they’re flying in proper detergent from civilized nations.