No, of course not. However, in America, HR runs the company, so there's no way around this idiocy.

It's worked fine for me for 16 years (mine was the very first model, not the later touchscreen models), except for the big mold issue (which after a couple years they did a factory recall and sent a technician to my place to install a bunch of new, redesigned parts in the door and front area), and the water pump failed a couple years ago which I replaced myself. There haven't been any electronic issues. I have read of some people having problems with the wax motor (the thing that controls the door locking) control circuit.

It can be very hard to get a new programming job if you haven't been doing it for a while. It doesn't matter how competent you are or if the language hasn't changed in 20 years. Many companies outright refuse to interview someone if they've been unemployed for more than 6 months.

You want a surgeon working on you who isn't passionate about medicine, and just wants to put in his 8 hours and go home?

So how do the Europeans do it? Just look at how cheap and high-quality cellphone and ISP service are in western European countries. Government regulation seems to work pretty decently over there.

You don't think microwaves can boil water?

Interesting. I wonder if any of this has changed in recent years, though, since a lot of (at least the high-end) laundry machines here in the US are now Asian-made, from Samsung and LG (rather than the old American standy-bys Maytag, Whirlpool, etc.); surely there's some effort there to make machines that are largely the same so they don't have to make different entirely machines for different markets.

>BTW, front loaders though more efficient do not nearly last as long and do not nearly have the capacity of a top loader and they seem to develop that stinky mold issue.

My Maytag Neptune is 16 years old and works fine. It also has the same capacity as most top-loaders (though not as large as today's larger front-loaders). The mold is a bit of a problem though.

Yes, but if a circuit has a higher current capacity, then it needs fatter wiring. If you reduce the current rating, you can reduce the wiring size, saving money since copper is expensive. So if European homes were more like American homes with special circuits for the high-power devices, and a lower current rating (5 or 10A) for the regular wall outlets, they could save money on construction by using smaller wiring. 16A circuits will still need the same size wiring as the 15A/120V circuits in American homes.

Do they actually do a good job? Usually, when you try to make a machine that does two very different jobs, it does a crappy job at either one compared to two machines that are optimized for each one.

I thought someone else in this thread mentioned those machines and said they do a terrible job cleaning clothes.

You're assuming that electricity is generated from coal. This simply isn't the case in many places: it's generated from nuclear power, hydropower (dams), solar power, wind power, etc.

If the cost of using natural gas to heat water is significantly less than using electricity, then there's something completely wrong with your analysis about the costs of electric.

Even those only use about 2.2kW according to other posts here. Personally, I think 10A per outlet (at 240V) should be more than sufficient, and would still power those ridiculously overpowered vacuum cleaners. 3.7kW is just insane.

Usually, we just use either microwave ovens or maybe teapots on the stove to heat water. You've got a point about electric heaters though.

What are you talking about? Your response seems to echo mine, but with the added point about the cold standing water in the pipe.

Wow, that's a lot. I wonder why they allow so much power per outlet?

Here in the US, the main outlets are only 1.8kW (per circuit), but for high-power circuits, like a water heater, stove, HVAC, etc., they get their own special 240V circuits (current depends on the circuit, usually 30A I think, though HVAC is hard-wired and probably gets 50A or 100A depending on the house). Also, the refrigerator and washing machine usually get their own separate circuits which are 120V/20A each. So the regular wall outlets that normal people plug stuff into on a regular basis are lower voltage and current, but for the devices that need more, they have their own special circuits with higher current and/or voltage.