Editor, Ceres Courier,

There is a parable to be found, strangely, in Proctor & Gamble’s new Dawn EZ-Squeeze product. The company touts a “patented no-flip cap technology” that helps with getting dish soap out of the bottle. The bottle stands upside down on its cap and dispenses from the bottom. All that is needed is a simple squeeze and “voila!” No longer must flip over the bottle and manually open the cap.

The innovation, as one critic says, “solves a problem no one had.” But in fact, the product solves a huge problem Proctor and Gamble was having—rising costs and declining consumer purchasing power. The company figured out a way to recoup the difference and then make additional bank by forcing people to use much more product per dish than in the past.

The TV commercials show squeezy amounts for one dish or pan that could clean an auto engine. Your problem manufactured; our problem solved. This “technological advance” pushes consumers back into the ice age of consumer financial intelligence.

The parable here? Americans seem no longer capable of skepticism. We operate instead only on simple authoritarian say so. If a corporation, political party, or church says this is miracle-level stuff, it must truly be. When we believe absurdities, we can be directed to throw away our money, storm the Capitol, or sit on a hill waiting for Jesus to return.

God bless America and the exploiters who run it!

Kimball Shinkoskey