One small step toward erasing the trade deficit: awesome, expensive, robotic toilets
This is a Marketplace.org Reader
Given my previous post, I kind of hate to drag things further into the… you know. But American technical ingenuity has spawned a popular new export to the very place that typically exports everything to us: iconic Wisconsin plumbing company Kohler is doing gonzo business in China with the “Numi,” a $6,400 robotic toilet with a remote that looks more complicated than your home entertainment system. The Numi features “leg-warming porcelain, a built-in stereo system and three bidet settings.” And it’s now on backorder, as evidently Chinese demand has far surpassed projections.
Hey, in the modern economy, we need to exploit every technical edge we can find — and this is a great example of applying American technological and scatological know-how, which also happens to boost American manufacturing.
Now the Chinese can literally continue to crap all over us… but it’s all good.
What else are Americans good at? Advertising. Now if this doesn’t make you want to rush out and either buy a Numi, or make out with one, you are a cold, cold consumer indeed. (Not that I have that kind of money to flush down the toilet.)