The great soap scam and other mysteries

I was tempted to call this blog entry "The great soap scum..." but wasn't sure if people would get it. I mean, how many people use soap enough these days to know about soap scum anyway? Regardless, I just wanted to rant about why it is soap manufacturers insist on selling big hunks-o-soap, especially hand soap, that get old and skanky long before they are used up. The reason is I recently broke my trusty lump-o-soap in two and now look forward to a long and skanky soap free period of lathering.

Now I hear you saying that you don't use hard soap at all, just liquid soap. Well did you know that's just part of the scam? Liquid soap, lather for lather is far more expensive than regular soap assuming that you use a full plunger's worth of it - which they assume you will. You're just going to smack that plunger all the way down, get a big dollop-o-soap and wash most of it away unused. Instead of a bar that lasts months you now have a container of soap that lasts just a month. But that's exactly what the soap guys wanted to hear. Next thing will be spray on soap that wastes even more soap...

Don't get me wrong, I understand the psychology of liquid soap - people don't want to grab a dirty soap bar in the first place. But think about it - your hands are dirty to start with, if soap doesn't have the ability to get you clean in the first place why bother using it? So a bit of dirt on the soap, or on your hands at the start of washing shouldn't matter, should it? And the dirt on the soap at the end didn't touch your hands - you rinsed all that soap away with water - just like the dirty water in the washing machine at the end of washing your clothes.

Anyway, I'm thinking that liquid soap is just another one of those inventions that seems like a good idea, but probably isn't, in the long run. Like for instance, leaf blowers. Yes folks, admit it - we all hate leaf blowers. Noisy, stinky and basically not that efficient leaf blowers. The only people to benefit from them are the ones actually using them which proportionately is a tiny fraction of those who benefit from clearing leaves. Even then you could argue that wielding a rake and brush all morning might actually be better than using a stinky noisy leaf blower for the same period. Less pollution, less noise and a bit of exercise thrown in - it certainly didn't do me any harm as a kid all those times I had to clear the leaves from our 1/2 of an acre of garden.

In fact, I'm so sure that most people really loath and detest leaf blowers that I'm willing to award them my 2005 Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul "Most loathed technology award" - until someone suggests something more loathsome that is (I have an idea already for the second place technology). Feel free to add a comment if you'd like to suggest something more worthy of first place.