Latest / The Matt Walsh Show / I Looked Into Why Household Appliance Quality Is Declining. It's Not What You Think.

Transcript

I Looked Into Why Household Appliance Quality Is Declining. It's Not What You Think. · The Matt Walsh Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, it's almost Labor Day, which means you're about to
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: be carpet bombed, if you're not already, with advertisements for
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: new appliances, almost all of which are essentially ticking time
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: bombs waiting to self-immolate in your home when you least
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: expect it. And for that reason, the holiday presents, I think,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: a good opportunity to answer some questions that almost every
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: American has asked in the past decade or so, which are,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: when exactly did household appliances become so much worse, so
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: much more dysfunctional and unreliable and even dangerous? And what
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: specifically changed in the appliances themselves? Is there any concrete
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: answer to these questions? Are we all imagining the massive
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: decline in quality? Well, as it turns out, no, it
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: is not a figment of our imagination. Yes, the quality
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: of our appliances, like so many other products in our lives,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: is declining. And there are very concrete reasons for that.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: And it's not as simple as, you know, corporations want
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: to make more money, so they design their products around
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: planned obsolescence. That's part of it, but it's not the
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: full story. There's also the fact that government regulations and
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the threat of litigation are forcing some of the largest
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: appliance manufacturers to build major vulnerabilities.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Into their products.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: And the manufacturers, rather than tell consumers what's happening and
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: how to fix the issues, are happy to sit back
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: and watch as the appliances break, leading to new sales.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: It's an intricate scam. And we're going to reveal it
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: all so that you know what to look for. But first,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: let's just watch this video together to set the stage.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: This is from an account called Tech Stuff, and it
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: describes a Sunbeam branded toaster from the 1940s. So if
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: my math is right, which it often isn't, we're talking
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: about a toaster from more than 80 years ago. Now,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: you would think, given all the advances in technology that
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: have taken place since the 1940s, that today's toasters would
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: be vastly superior to this product from Sunbeam. Again, it
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: was created long before we landed on the moon. And yet,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: despite all the time that's passed, modern toasters have nothing
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: on the sunbeam. And there's a very, very interesting reason
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: for that that we'll talk about.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Watch.
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: What makes this toaster cool is, well, besides the bread
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: automatically rising and lowering when it's starting or finishing, it's
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: actually the radiant control portion that makes it cool. And here,
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: just let me read it for you. The toasting is
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: always the same no matter what kind of bread you use.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: The heat radiated from the surface of the bread actuates
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: the exclusive radiant control thermostat. That's why you always get
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: the same uniform golden toast you want, whether the slices
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: are moist or dry, cold or warm, thick or thin.
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: Only the Sunbeam has it. And you can clearly see
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: they're pointing to the radiant control, which is essentially a
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: bimetallic strip that, when it gets hot enough, it actuates
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: the thermostat, it clicks it off, and then the bread
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: rises up. And that's all done mechanically. There's no motors
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: in there that makes it go up and down. It's
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: just a counterbalance on a lever. So I'm gonna be
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: making a lot of toast right now, and I'm gonna
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: be using white bread, an English muffin, hamburger buns, some
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: rye bread. Well, here you'll be able to see that
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: all of the bread here is toasted at about the
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: same doneness. And that's the really cool part about this toaster.
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: And let me put all these times up against each
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: other And as you can see, the times vary rather wildly.
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: It goes from almost two minutes at English muffin at
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: a minute 55, and the hamburger bun at 42 seconds.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: And I didn't change any settings. It has the radiant
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: control sensor, and it keeps them all about the same
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: level of doneness automatically. So by comparison, my Cuisinart toaster,
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: which is rated at 1800 watts.
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: You can see about how bright this gets with its
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: heating elements. Now, side by side, you can clearly see
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: the sunbeam is really hot, and that's only at 1,375 watts. Still,
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: it is a hotter toast, in my opinion, when it
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: comes out, and I just think it's better.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: So in the 1940s, the toaster could sense how hot
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: the bread was, and it would dynamically adjust the heating
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: time to ensure the bread was toasted appropriately. So If
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: you cooked one batch of toast and then quickly toasted
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: another while the toaster was still hot, you didn't have
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: to worry about timer settings or anything like that. The
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Sunbeam would automatically cook the second batch of toast for
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: a shorter period of time. And as you saw, no
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: matter what you stick in the Sunbeam, it's going to
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: heat it to a consistent level. Now, by contrast, today's
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: toasters mostly use timers, which are obviously much more inexact
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: because they're not measuring heat at all. And even some
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: premium toasters that do measure temperature aren't as good as
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: the Sunbeam because they measure ambient temperature. temperature in the
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: toaster as opposed to the temperature in the bread itself.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: This is the kind of thing that if you're a
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: conspiratorial person, must absolutely drive you crazy. I mean, how
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: could it be that over the course of 80 years,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: we haven't figured out how to make.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: A better toaster?
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: How could it be that, if anything, most toasters have
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: degraded in quality? Our grandparents and great-grandparents all those years
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: ago They imagined a Jetsonian future where a robot would
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: like instantly zap your bread to the exact level.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Of toastiness that you desire.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: And instead, here we are eight decades later with toasters
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: that have not advanced at all or have gone the
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: opposite direction. Is it possible there's somehow a conspiracy to
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: make toasters worse? Actually, that would be the optimistic explanation.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: The more likely explanation is that we've all simply accepted
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: a mediocre product, which is cheaper to produce.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: So that's what we get.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: It's similar to how we abandoned the Concorde, the supersonic
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: passenger jet. We had the ability to fly on faster
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: planes and have better toasters and have a lot of
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: other better stuff. But we decided collectively as a population
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: that it just wasn't worth it. So while we can
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: land on the moon, we're stuck with toasters that don't
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: work very well. That's the weird dynamic. Now, you can
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: get very radicalized if you spend any amount of time
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: thinking about this topic. And indeed, many people are doing
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: just that. So consider this viral video that blew up
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: recently where a guy shows off his fully functioning 1956
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: washer in 2026. Now today, the typical washing machine lasts
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: for about seven to 10 years. This machine is going
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: on 70 years of use and still going strong.
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: Watch.
• 6:24
  Speaker 6: This is a 1956 Frigidaire washer.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I want to show you guys how quickly it'll empty
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: this tub and get up to 1100 RPMs of spin speed.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Watch this. And it's there.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Now, in response to videos like this, you might point
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: out that, well, you know, while it's impressive, we can't
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: actually draw too many conclusions from this clip alone. We
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: have no idea how many times this washing machine has
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: been repaired, for example, nor do we know on average
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the typical lifespan of a Frigidaire washing machine from.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: The 1950s, nor does anyone have any data on that point.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Maybe 90% of them died within a few years, and
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: this one is a unicorn, so it's a kind of
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: a survivorship bias going on. But the thing is, Pretty
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: much everyone has a story like this. I mean, anecdotally,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: you probably remember or your parents may remember how much
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: longer appliances used to last and how they were often
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: built with steel instead of plastic or aluminum. And even
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: if you don't remember that, it's hard to miss the
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: constant stream of videos where people make this claim. So
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: here's another one that went viral. This is a fridge
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: from 1958.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Watch.
• 7:45
  Speaker 6: All right, on today's episode of They Don't Build Things
• 7:50
  Speaker 6: Like They Used To.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: I present.
• 7:53
  Speaker 6: The refrigerator from 1958. This is the General Electric variety
• 7:59
  Speaker 6: with the Lazy Susans that are also adjustable up and down.
• 8:04
  Speaker 6: Some people ask, well, what do you do if you've
• 8:06
  Speaker 6: got to put something tall in there? Well, you push
• 8:08
  Speaker 6: the button in and then you lower the shelf down
• 8:10
  Speaker 6: as needed. It says rotating crisper.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: Drawer as well.
• 8:19
  Speaker 6: Temperature controlled butter storage. That was a big thing back
• 8:21
  Speaker 6: in the day. I know most of us just leave
• 8:24
  Speaker 6: our butter out on their countertop, but back when butter
• 8:26
  Speaker 6: was still real, they had a separate heated.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Compartment inside the fridge for it. Steel plate.
• 8:34
  Speaker 6: Well, I'll go find some more.
• 8:37
  Speaker 7: Okay.
• 8:38
  Speaker 6: Okay, so here we are. We got, I don't know,
• 8:43
  Speaker 6: quite a few pounds of steel on there. Now, does
• 8:48
  Speaker 6: that shelf look like it's even thinking about breaking or
• 8:52
  Speaker 6: bending or doing whatever it is that someone says it's
• 8:54
  Speaker 6: going to do?
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Now, in the interest of full disclosure, since I'm always
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: interested in presenting the other side of the debate, you
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: should know that, you know, this viral fridge video really
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: infuriated the esteemed journalists at the Wall Street Journal. And
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: they put out a TikTok video in the usual style
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: that these kind of videos are made now. And this
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: is made by someone named Emma Camp. debunking the fridge
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: from 1958. Watch.
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: I recently saw a viral video about a fridge from
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: 1958 and the comments drove me crazy. Everyone seemed to
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: agree that the reason why they didn't have a fridge
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: as cool as that one is because of capitalism. This
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: could not be more wrong. So while I couldn't find
• 9:37
  Speaker 5: that exact model, I did track down an ad for
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: a similar fridge from 1958. It costs $ 400, so about $ 4, 600 today.
• 9:46
  Speaker 5: Most modern fridges are way less expensive than that. In fact, $ 4, 600
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: these days will get you just about the nicest fridge
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: that money can buy. This smart fridge is 50% larger
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: than the 1958 one. It has a built-in ice maker
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: and water dispenser. and some very fancy beverage storage. Not
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: only are fridges cheaper today, but modern American families are
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: much richer than they were in the 1950s. In fact,
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: in 1950, around 20% of American homes didn't even have fridges.
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: Why did appliances become less expensive? It comes down to
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: technological innovation and competition from foreign models. So no, capitalism
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: is not the reason why you don't have that vintage fridge.
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: It's why you, normal person watching this video, can afford
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: a fridge in the first place.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Now I counted about five different poses in that one
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: minute video, which is actually restrained by Gen Z selfie
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: video standards. That could have fit in another 20 poses
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: or so, 20 more cuts. And by the way, this
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: video is courtesy of the Wall Street Journal opinion section,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: which is the same paper and the same opinion section
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: that just a few days ago defended a columnist who
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: used AI to write an op-ed on the theory that
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: AI is just another tool, you know, like a spell
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: checker or a thesaurus. Emma Camp had nothing to do
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: with that, to be clear, but I can't miss the
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: opportunity to mention it since we're talking about Wall Street Journal.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: And the writer in this case, in the case of
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: the op-ed, did not use AI just to help him.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: He used it to draft entire paragraphs, to generate the article,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: in large sections anyway. And the AI-generated writing was so
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: bad that everyone immediately called it out. And nevertheless, in
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: the eyes of the Wall Street Journal, there was nothing
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: wrong with the AI-generated slop op-ed or slop-ed, as we
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: can now probably dub it. And anyway, as for the
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: substance of what Emma Camp actually says, first of all,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: she never says anything about the butter warmer in the
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: fridge from the 1950s. She talks a lot about the
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: new features in modern fridges, but she fails to mention
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: that none of these features is anywhere near as cool
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: as a butter warmer in your fridge.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: That's a big omission right off the bat.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: But then, you know, there's the whole bit about capitalism,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: as if everyone who's upset with their appliances must be
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: a communist. And in fairness, some people do blame capitalism
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: for this problem. And I'm sure she saw plenty of
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: comments to that effect, which she's responding to. But to
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: make this entire discussion into a capitalism versus anti-capitalism thing
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: misses the point. I'm not anti-capitalism, obviously. I don't think
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: we should return the Bolsheviks to power simply because appliances
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: are terrible now. And yes, as she states in the video,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: it's obviously true that appliances are much cheaper now than
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: they were in the 1950s. They have more features, too,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: with the exception of the butter warmer. And many of
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: these new features are totally pointless, while also making the
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: appliance much more likely to break down. But none of
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: this explains why appliances today as a general matter are
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: not built to last for any significant amount of time.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: She doesn't address that question. And that's strange because just
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, this same paper, the Wall
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Street Journal, observed that according to all available data, the
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: problem is indeed very real. Quote, appliance technicians and others
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: in the industry say there has been.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: An increase in items in need of repair.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Yelp users, for example, requested 58% more quotes from thousands
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: of appliance repair businesses last month than they did in
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: January of 2022. American households spent 43% more on home
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: appliances in 2023 than they did in 2013, rising from
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: an inflation-adjusted average of $ 390 to $ 558. Prices for the
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: category declined 12% from the beginning of 2013 through the
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: end of 2023, according to the Labor Department.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: Okay, so I'll say that again.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: We now spend 43% more on home appliances than we
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: did in 2013, even though prices have decreased in that
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: same period. The only logical explanation is that people are
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: replacing appliances much more frequently than they used to, probably
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: because those appliances are breaking. And indeed, the article goes
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: through several examples of people who spend a lot of
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: money for new appliances only to see them fail in
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: spectacular fashion. There's one case where a couple owned a
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: dishwasher from the 90s that was working perfectly, but they
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: decided to purchase a much sleeker $ 800 stainless steel dishwasher
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: from GE, only for the new dishwasher to spring a
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: hidden leak. Less than three years later, they ended up
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: with $ 35, 000 worth of damage to their kitchen. Plus, they
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: got dropped by their homeowner's insurance, and the culprit was
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: a $ 60 pump that broke. Yes, a $ 60 pump ultimately
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: caused $ 35, 000 in damages. And again, anecdotally, I can say
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: that my personal experience with dishwashers in particular has.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: Been similarly tragic.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: We've had at least two top of the line dishwashers
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: in the last couple of years that have ended up
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: leaking all over the floor.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Both had to be replaced.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: And one thing you notice about the really nice dishwashers
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: is that even if they remain functional for longer than
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: three and a half days, They don't actually do a
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: better job of the thing that they're supposed to do,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: which is washing the dishes. The expensive ones don't produce
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: noticeably cleaner dishes. Sometimes it runs the opposite way. This
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: is not an uncommon situation anymore across a variety of appliances,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: which we'll talk about in a second. But maybe the
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: best way to illustrate how much things have changed is
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: simply to look at how appliances are advertised now compared
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: to the 70s and earlier.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: So here are a.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: All the way back then, in case you don't remember
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: them or weren't alive when they were airing.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: Watch.
• 15:22
  Speaker 8: Mr.
• 15:22
  Speaker 9: Maytag Repairman.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: I'm coming.
• 15:25
  Speaker 10: Help.
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: Oh, lonely.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Hold on.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Help.
• 15:33
  Speaker 7: Help.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: I'd go anywhere to fix a Maytag.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: What a dream, but I'm exhausted. I'd better go down
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: to the shop and get some rest.
• 15:46
  Speaker 8: Not all Maytag repairmen are this lonely, but we're trying.
• 15:48
  Speaker 6: Maytag.
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: We also make great dishwashers.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: Working on the Maytag.
• 15:53
  Speaker 7: Working on the Maytag.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Boy, it's sure good to be actually working on a Maytag.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: It's been a while.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: You know, that's the trouble with you Maytag washers and dryers.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: You're too dependable. It's not often that anybody needs.
• 16:07
  Speaker 10: Us Maytag repairmen.
• 16:09
  Speaker 7: That's why we're the loneliest guys in town.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: I'm working on the Maytag.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: So the whole sales pitch is that Maytag's appliances were reliable.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Their washers and dryers and dishwashers weren't going to need
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: a repairman. So he could just relax because they were
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: built to last. And plenty of other brands used the
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: same strategy as this. It seems like a pretty good
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: selling point. Timex ran the ads where they promised that
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: their watches would take a licking and keep on ticking.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and Ford promised that Ford trucks last longer. Again, customers
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: expected that products would last a very long time, and
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: most corporations had not yet mastered the art of planned
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: obsolescence or maximizing shareholder value, so they gave customers what
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: they wanted. Now, fast forward a few decades, and ads
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: look more like this one from GE.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: This innovative profile dishwasher makes life easier when you connect.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: To unlock more features, like Smart Assist, simply download the
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: Smart HQ app. Smart Assist uses intelligent machine learning and
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: diagnostics to enhance wash and dry performance. Sensors constantly monitor
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: the dishwasher's progress and will send a notification through the
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: Smart HQ app if attention is needed.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Now, I'll admit that in certain situations, having a Wi-Fi
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: connected appliance can be a good idea. It could be
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: useful to remotely control your thermostat with your phone, I guess.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Or hypothetically, you could even use your iPhone to access
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: the camera on your Roomba and spot a home invasion
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: in progress and race home and.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Shoot the burglars.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Those are completely plausible scenarios that are made possible by
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: the wonders of online-enabled smart appliances. But when your dishwasher
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: claims that it's using machine learning, It's time to draw
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: the line. I mean, there's no universe in which machine
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: learning and a dishwasher should appear within the same sentence.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: It's totally absurd.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: No sane person wants to get dishwasher notifications on their phone.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: This is one of the most self-defeating things about all
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: these smart appliances.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: The whole point of a.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Household appliance is that it's supposed to do a job
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: for you and take it off of your plate. But
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: now with smart appliances all routed through your Wi-Fi, connected
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: to your phone, not only do you have more features
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: that can easily break and all that kind of stuff,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: your appliances are constantly nagging you. They take up more
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: space in your mind and your life, not less. You know,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: the idea back in the day was, yeah, you're spending
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: a lot of money on the appliance, you invest in it,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: and you're going to have it for a long time,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: and it just kind of does its job.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: You don't have to think about it. And it's not
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: like that anymore.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Now, admittedly, I've never connected any of my appliances to
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: my phone because I don't really like receiving text messages
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: from most humans I know, much less receiving them from
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: my oven or my ice maker. But I know plenty
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: of people who are fully connected and integrated with their appliances.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: They receive real-time updates and push notifications from their refrigerator
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: and their washer and dryer.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: And crock pot.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: It's like being in a never-ending group chat with every
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: inanimate object in your house. I mean, why not bring
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: your sofa and your coffee table into the conversation at
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: this point? It's totally ridiculous. And as you'd expect, all
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: of this comes with a very big catch.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Because everything does.
• 19:34
  Speaker 10: Watch.
• 19:35
  Speaker 11: This weekend, I had to buy a new dishwasher because
• 19:37
  Speaker 11: our old GE died. I bought a Bosch 500 series
• 19:40
  Speaker 11: because that's what Consumer Reports recommended, and more importantly, I
• 19:43
  Speaker 11: could find one in stock. After my dad and I
• 19:45
  Speaker 11: got it installed, I went to run a rinse cycle
• 19:48
  Speaker 11: only to find that that, along with features like... delayed
• 19:50
  Speaker 11: start and eco mode, require an app. Not only that,
• 19:54
  Speaker 11: to use the app, you have to connect your dishwasher
• 19:56
  Speaker 11: to Wi-Fi, set up a cloud account in something called
• 19:59
  Speaker 11: Home Connect, and then, and only then, can you start
• 20:02
  Speaker 11: using all the features.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: On the dishwasher.
• 20:04
  Speaker 11: We wanted to run just a rinse cycle to make
• 20:06
  Speaker 11: sure the water would go in, the water would pump
• 20:08
  Speaker 11: out through the sump, and everything would be working. But
• 20:12
  Speaker 11: I could not find a way to do a rinse
• 20:14
  Speaker 11: cycle on the control panel. So I looked in this
• 20:17
  Speaker 11: book and found this page. This page shows that the
• 20:21
  Speaker 11: rinse cycle has an asterisk. The asterisk, if you look
• 20:24
  Speaker 11: down at the bottom, says, available through Home Connect app only,
• 20:28
  Speaker 11: and depending on your model. If you have a cloud app,
• 20:31
  Speaker 11: that means there's a cloud service that has to be
• 20:33
  Speaker 11: running that costs money to maintain. And if there's no
• 20:36
  Speaker 11: subscription fee right now, that means one of two things. One,
• 20:40
  Speaker 11: they could be selling our data already. I didn't look
• 20:42
  Speaker 11: at the full terms of service or anything, so I
• 20:44
  Speaker 11: don't know if they already are, but that's one possibility.
• 20:47
  Speaker 11: The other one is at some point, they'll either close
• 20:49
  Speaker 11: the service because it's a cost center that they don't
• 20:52
  Speaker 11: want to pay for, And it costs maintenance once you
• 20:54
  Speaker 11: have a million users using this thing. Or two, they're
• 20:58
  Speaker 11: going to charge a subscription. And all of a sudden,
• 21:01
  Speaker 11: if you want to use rinse mode, it's going to
• 21:02
  Speaker 11: be five bucks a month forever.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: So in addition to being more inconvenient, the Intelligent Machine
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Learning Wi-Fi enabled dishwasher also has access to your personal information.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Once you install their app on your phone, which I
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: don't know why anybody would ever do, you're giving them
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: your name, your email address, your phone number. They're learning
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: how often you wash the dishes. They're learning when you're
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: at home, et cetera. And presumably they're either selling this
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: information or they're planning to monetize it in some other way. Now,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: if you asked a random customer, which would you prefer?
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: A dishwasher that lasts 50 years or a dishwasher that
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: connects to your Wi-Fi and floods your kitchen in three years?
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Every single one of them would choose the 50-year option.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: But none of these companies are even trying to make.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: A product like that. They're not even trying.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Collectively, they've all decided to create worse products in tandem
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: to improve their margins and ensure planned obsolescence. It's probably
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: not some antitrust conspiracy, but it doesn't have to be.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: It's a happy medium for these corporations, and we're all
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: paying for it. Most people do not understand health insurance.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: You pay an enormous amount of money every month. You
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: receive a stack of documents written in a language apparently
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: designed to prevent human comprehension. And you mostly hope you
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: never have to find out how any of it works.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: And there is another model, though, that's the good news,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: that Christians should know about. Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: is not health insurance. It's a health cost-sharing ministry where
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Christians voluntarily come together to share each other's eligible medical bills.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: It's a remarkably straightforward concept, and it's not new. CHM
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: has been doing this since 1981. And since then, they've
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: satisfied 100% of every eligible bill received. Programs start as
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: low as $ 115 per person per month, with added protection
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: available for catastrophic medical events. So if you're frustrated by
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: the cost of traditional health insurance, it might be worth
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: considering a model built around Christians helping other Christians when
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: they need it. Get started today by visiting chministries.org slash Walsh.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: That's chministries.org slash Walsh. One of the great disappointments of
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: adulthood is discovering how often your mother was right. You
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: do need to go to bed at a reasonable hour.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Money does not, in fact, grow on trees. And apparently,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: you really should eat your fruits and vegetables. It's all
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: very irritating. Bounce of Nature at least makes that last
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: part easier. Their fruits and veggie supplements give you a
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: simple way to add more whole fruits and vegetables into
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: your daily routine. No elaborate health ritual, just something easy
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: to do every day. Go to bounceofnature.com, use promo code WALSH,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: and get 10% off any subscription, plus a free guiltless snack.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: Mom wins again.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Most people have been paying the same wireless company every
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: month for years without ever stopping to ask why it
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: costs so much. Well, you should probably ask, especially because
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: right now Pure Talk is offering any plan for just
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: 15 bucks a month for your first three months. This
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: is only going to last for just a few more weeks.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Even the top tier unlimited plan, normally $ 65 a month,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: is $ 15 a for those first three months. That's up
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: to $ 150 in savings. It's not complicated. Do the math
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: and switch. Go to puretalk.com slash Walsh. Now, a big
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: part of the problem is that all across the appliance industry,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: plastic housing is increasingly used for critical components. In a dishwasher,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: that includes the pump or the spray arms. Very often,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: this is presented as a safety measure rather than an
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: attempt to cut costs or to force the machines to
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: fail so that they need to be replaced. even though
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: that's very often what's actually happening. But the truth is
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: usually a lot more complicated. So take mixers, for example.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: If you buy a KitchenAid mixer today, even an expensive one,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: the machine is almost certainly gonna have a single nylon
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: gear inside called a worm gear. And the primary role
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: of the worm gear is to transfer rotational power from
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: the motor to the gears, which then allow the mixing
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: attachment to work. But the worm gear also functions as
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: a mechanical fuse. You know, it's designed to strip and
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: shed if the mixer ever encounters too much resistance, which
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: in turn will immediately stop the mixer from working, protecting
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: the motor and the gears from any further damage. But
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: as many people have pointed out, this safety feature does
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: not simply kick in during a rare emergency. Instead, after
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: a few years, the worm gear seems to inevitably fall apart,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: regardless of how you're using the mixer. And according to
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: many different reports you'll find online, this failure mode is
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: very new because back in the day, the worm gear
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: was made of metal instead of plastic. Supposedly, these mixers
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: were much more reliable when a company called Hobart was
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: making the mixers before Whirlpool took over in 1986. Here's
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: just one example of a video that makes this claim.
• 25:46
  Speaker 5: Watch.
• 25:47
  Speaker 10: Let me introduce you to the part they hope you
• 25:50
  Speaker 10: never learn about. It is called the worm follower gear.
• 25:55
  Speaker 10: In every modern KitchenAid tilt head mixer hidden inside that
• 25:58
  Speaker 10: beautiful metal body, there is a gear made of nylon, plastic.
• 26:03
  Speaker 10: In a machine that costs $ 300 to $ 500, there is
• 26:07
  Speaker 10: a $ 3 plastic gear that is guaranteed to fail. Here
• 26:10
  Speaker 10: is what they do not say. Your grandmother's Hobart-era mixer
• 26:14
  Speaker 10: had thermal overload protection built into the motor itself. If
• 26:19
  Speaker 10: she overloaded it, the motor would shut off automatically, cool
• 26:22
  Speaker 10: down for a few minutes, and restart. No parts destroyed,
• 26:27
  Speaker 10: no repair needed. The machine protected itself without sacrificing anything.
• 26:33
  Speaker 10: The plastic gear does not protect you. The plastic gear
• 26:37
  Speaker 10: guarantees a future transaction. Either you pay a repair technician
• 26:42
  Speaker 10: to open the machine and replace it, or you decide
• 26:45
  Speaker 10: the repair cost is not worth it and you buy
• 26:47
  Speaker 10: a new mixer. Either way, the company wins. A viewer
• 26:52
  Speaker 10: named Susan from Michigan sent me photographs of her mixer's
• 26:55
  Speaker 10: gearbox after it failed. The plastic gear had been ground
• 26:59
  Speaker 10: into white powder. She said it looked like someone had
• 27:02
  Speaker 10: grated a candle inside her KitchenAid.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: Now there are aspects of this claim that are true
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: and some that are made up. The important point, which
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: most people don't realize, is that KitchenAid does indeed include
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: nylon worm gears in most of their models. And these
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: gears are very prone to failure over time. And if
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: you don't use your mixer in accordance with the manual,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: then you're going to accelerate this timeline drastically. If you
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: read all the documentation that came with your mixer, which
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: of course nobody does, you'll learn that you need to
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: use low speeds when you're mixing yeast dough, for example.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: On the other hand, professional-grade mixers, including some sold by KitchenAid,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: use all-metal gears assemblies, and even ordinary mixers from the
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: 80s had much better construction than what you'll find today.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: So take a look at this shot, which I pulled
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: from the website Mixerology, along with all of my knowledge
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: on the topic of mixers. I've become suddenly an expert
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: on the topic, never meant to be. This is what
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: the kids would call a gear-mogging, I guess. I'm not
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: going to pretend to be an actual expert on the topic,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: but I can say with a high degree of certainty
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: that if I had the option, I'd rather have the
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: mixer that doesn't look like a child's toy. But today,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: you don't get that option, at least unless you spring
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: for a much more expensive professional mixer. Evidently, these professional
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: mixers come with fully metal transmissions, and the worm gear
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: follower is made of bronze, not nylon. This is reportedly
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: the case for the Professional HD and Professional 600 model types,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: among others. And while the bronze gear can theoretically still fail,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: of course, it's much more resilient. You can also find
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: professional mixers mostly used in high volume cafeterias that don't
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: have a mechanical fuse at all. They use an integrated
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: motor and transmission assembly. And as you expect, they have
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: a much, much lower failure rate than your mixer at home.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Now what's misleading about the KitchenAid content you'll find online,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: and yes, it's an entire genre somehow, is the suggestion
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: that older household mixers didn't have the nylon gear.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: They did.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: This wasn't a modern change to suddenly force your mixer
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: to fail. Wirecutter recently tore down an old KitchenAid mixer
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: and they found very similar components in an old mixer
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: as compared to one that you buy today. That said,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: as I just mentioned, the quality of the construction in
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: those old mixers was still visibly superior to anything you
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: can buy off a shelf right now for a reasonable
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: price anyway. As it stands, if your KitchenAid mixer becomes disabled,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: you have a couple of options. You can buy a
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: new mixer, which is obviously what KitchenAid wants you to do.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: It's also the most common option. Alternatively, you can pay
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: a technician $ 100 to fix it, or you can replace
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: the part yourself.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: And here's what that looks like.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: It's a fairly involved process that will take about 30
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: minutes out of your day.
• 29:39
  Speaker 7: Watch. welcome to redneck light today i'm going to be
• 29:42
  Speaker 7: showing you how to disassemble rebuild and re-grease a 4.5
• 29:46
  Speaker 7: quart kitchenaid mixer this is the classic tilt head model
• 29:51
  Speaker 7: with the sacrificial plastic worm gear by design it fails
• 29:55
  Speaker 7: before the motor fails and the repair is fairly inexpensive
• 29:59
  Speaker 7: compared to buying a completely new one. It is a
• 30:02
  Speaker 7: messy job, but totally doable by.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: An at-home user.
• 30:05
  Speaker 7: Like I said, you're almost aiming to make a mess
• 30:09
  Speaker 7: with this.
• 30:12
  Speaker 9: We're just really trying to go nuts.
• 30:18
  Speaker 7: Alright, so there you can see the.
• 30:21
  Speaker 9: Very heavily greased bits and pieces of the KitchenAid mixer,
• 30:26
  Speaker 9: and that's Now the very back of this, you're going
• 30:29
  Speaker 9: to push the power cord boot back into its slot here.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Make sure everything looks okay.
• 30:41
  Speaker 9: Test the switch, make sure it looks like it's moving okay.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: Now if you're the kind of person who's willing to
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: deal with this hassle, repairing the gear is cheap, but
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: if you're like the vast majority of KitchenAid customers and
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: your machine dies on you after a few years, you
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: become frustrated, you.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: Buy a new one. That's the whole point. But again,
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: I don't want to imply that all.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Of these problems are invented by executives just to wring
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: more money out of you, although that is happening. The
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: government also played a very big role across a variety
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: of industries. When Wirecutter spoke to some repairmen, they immediately
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: pointed to federal regulations concerning water and energy efficiency as
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: the root cause of many problems that people deal with
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: when it comes to these kitchen appliances. Quote, the main
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: culprit is the set of efficiency standards for water and
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: energy use for all cooking, refrigeration and cleaning appliances. Those
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: standards have been managed by the Department of Energy since
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: 1987 and frequently updated. The rules are evaluated at least
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: once every six years after each amendment. Most of the
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: significant changes arrived in the early 2000s and they have
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: been updated several times since. Before those updates, appliances were
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: road tested for decades. Brand representatives would even ride along
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: with his technicians as they worked on appliances and monitor
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: the failures and what goes on inside. Now the models
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: change a lot more often. More importantly, to meet any
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: new standard, the appliances often move from analog parts to
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: digital components, such as computer circuit boards. So the constant
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: changes prevent long-term testing from taking place while also introducing
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: many more components that can fail. And by the way,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Just in case you think that this was a partisan issue,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act of 1987, which we
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: all remember, passed the Senate with 89 votes. The House
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: approved it with a voice vote. So we're talking about
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: an overwhelming support from both political parties for empowering the
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: Department of Energy to ruin as many household appliances as possible.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: The law was signed into law by Reagan, who supported
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: the law because appliance manufacturers who lobbied hard for the
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: bill were frustrated by the patchwork of state laws that
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: were regulating their products. They wanted a uniform federal standard,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: and they got one. Mechanical timers were replaced by circuit boards.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Plastics replaced metals, as we discussed. Motors became smaller and
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: used less water. This was a theme of Reagan's presidency.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: He created a framework that in the following decades would
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: become a disaster. He did it with immigration and his amnesty.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: He did it again with this legislation.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: Under George W.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: Bush, the Department of Energy gained even more power. And
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: then under Obama, the regulations intensified even further. So this
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: was a bipartisan effort to screw us over, as most
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: bipartisan efforts are. We'll close with one more practical example
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: of the effects of these regulations, specifically the regulations governing
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: water use.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: Now, again, I'm not an expert on.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: The topic, but it's fascinating to see exactly how the
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: government can manage to cause problems with your washing machine
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: So I found a service center in San Diego that
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: pointed out many of the issues caused by eco-related regulations
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: that conserve water. And here's what they had to say. Quote,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: the logic is simple. Washing machines need sufficient water to
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: create effective agitation and detergent distribution. When water levels are reduced,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: clothes do not move as freely and detergent may not
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: dissolve fully. The result is uneven cleaning and an accumulation
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: of grime inside the drum hoses and filters. This hidden
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: buildup can cause malfunctions, unpleasant odors, and even accelerate wear
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: on critical components such as pumps and seals. High-efficiency machines
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: are designed to use less water, but their sensors and
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: cycles rely on careful balance. If a machine's sensors misread
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: the load size or detergent amount, it may use even
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: less water than intended. Over weeks and months, small compromises
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: in water usage can lead to a steady decline in performance.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: Users often notice that clothes look cleaner but feel stiff,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: smell faintly musty, or require extra cycles for stubborn stains.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Reduced water levels also strain the appliance, causing pumps to
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: work harder along with uneven wear on the drums, detergent residue,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: since it's not fully rinsed, can corrode components and on
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: and on. So how do you benefit from any of this?
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: Maybe your utility bills will be a little bit lower, but.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: That's about it.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: In exchange, you get an expensive washing machine that's doomed
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: to fail in a few years. Oh, and all of
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: your other appliances got worse too, courtesy.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: Of the federal government.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Now, if there's any silver lining here, it's that in 2024,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: the Supreme Court overturned the Chevron doctrine. We talked about
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: this case at the time. The ruling basically means that
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Congress can't delegate everything to federal agencies like the Department
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: of Energy. In other words, every once in a while,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: Congress needs to pass a law using the constitutional process
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: rather than allowing bureaucrats to at the Department of Energy
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: to effectively pass laws by themselves, which is what's been happening.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Agencies are no longer entitled to the benefit of the
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: doubt in every case, and that's good news if someone
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: decides to sue the Department of Energy to roll back
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: some of these inane regulations that are making our everyday
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: life much worse in many respects. There's a real opportunity
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: to do something about these regulations for the first time
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: in decades. And once that happens, who knows? Maybe we'll
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: usher in a new era of human progress. Maybe we'll
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: colonize Mars in a few years. Because you see, when
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: we're not drowning ourselves in regulations, there's actually a lot
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: we can achieve. All we have to do is admit
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: once again that Reagan made a mistake. We have to
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: make it clear that people are entitled to demand functional products,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: even if that means paying more upfront. And even if
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: that means we're using a little more water in the process.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: And if you doubt that it's possible, remember, we once
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: landed on the moon.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: And we did land on the moon.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: We also, once upon a time, created a toaster that
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: doesn't burn the bread. And we can easily return to
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: that era of American excellence if we're willing to do so.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: This is a far more worthy cause than a lot
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: of the stuff that people talk about. It's a more
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: worthy cause than all the BLM riots combined. So the
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: next time your Wi-Fi-enabled washing machine destroys your entire kitchen
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: or the next time your KitchenAid mixer spontaneously combusts, remember
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: the words of the old civil rights heroes of yesteryear.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: And get yourself into some good trouble. Take to the streets.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: Seek the justice that you and your dirty dishes so
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: rightly deserve. Future generations and future customers of household appliances
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: in particular will thank you for your sacrifice. And next
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: time there's a Labor Day appliance sale, for the first
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: time in recorded history, people will actually be excited about it.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: And with apologies to George Floyd and John Lewis, it's
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: hard to imagine a more meaningful legacy than that. That'll
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: do it for the show today. Thanks for watching. Thanks
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: for listening. Talk to you next week. Have a great weekend.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: Godspeed.
• 37:56
  Speaker 8: But in all of my years of public life, I
• 37:59
  Speaker 8: have never profited from public service. I welcome this kind
• 38:03
  Speaker 8: of examination because people have got to know whether or
• 38:06
  Speaker 8: not their president's a crook.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm not a crook.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: For more than five decades, from Iran-Contra to Monica Lewinsky
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: to Russiagate, every political scandal has been measured against one,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: the Watergate affair.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: But what if Richard Nixon was telling the truth? What
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: if Watergate isn't what it seems?
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: What if hundreds of thousands of pages of sworn testimony, memoirs,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: and newly released government documents tell a different story than
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: the one you learned in school? In 1972, Nixon won
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: the biggest electoral landslide in modern American history with grand
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: plans to remake the federal government.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: Two years later, he was out of office.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: You were taught that Nixon's men broke into the Democratic
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: National Committee headquarters.
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: To spy on his political opponents.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: You were taught that when he found out, Nixon covered
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: it up. and that the cover-up was worse than the crime.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: You were taught that two heroic Washington.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: Post reporters, guided by a righteous FBI whistleblower, brought the
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: most powerful man in the world to justice.
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: But you were never taught what really happened.
• 39:09
  Speaker 8: I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: The real history of the Watergate scandal is available now
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: on Daily Wire +.