They don’t just say it, they are doing it. The average American is getting taxed out of existence in millions of different ways. I looked for an 80 gallon hot water heater - they are over double what I paid for the last one. They now have a small internal heat pump to make them more “energy efficient”. They don’t last as long which means they end up in the landfill sooner but that’s good for the environment . . . somehow. And don’t get me started on automobiles which are engineered like a NASA space module meaning they are extremely expensive and small things like air bag deployment, EV batteries catch fire or collision renders them as totaled. Just go get another new vehicle. No problem, right?
Two 40-gallon water heaters are cheaper than one 80-gallon. Builders have been using two 40-gallon water heaters (instead of a single 80-gallon) in new houses for a few years now.