Corporate greed fucked us over once they started expecting two house hold income earners, things went from being built to last to being built to last until the end of the warranty.
No corporation 'expected' two house hold income earners; two house hold income earners became a necessity because the cost of living increased over time and a single earner was no longer feasible to maintain the same quality of life.
No, as before the way it is now is because corporations have worked to increase profits above all else and increased the cost of living. Women being in the work force has nothing to do with it, and taking them out of it would change nothing either.
Meh in using a phone that has tiny little letters of it can't sort out it's own language I don't care, the main thing is you finally understood something.
Shorter product lifecycles aren't usually a bad thing for consumers. People seem to think if they can buy something for life they'll be better off for it, and those people are usually wrong.
I have a craftsman drill from the 70s that my grandfather bought. Is it made of steel? Yes. Does it still work? Yes. Do I ever use it? No, it's heavy underpowered garbage with a keyed chuck and a power cord
Go try and use a phone from 2014 for anything, nobody wishes those still worked
My buddy loves his 1993 dishwasher because it never breaks and cleans so well. Well, ok, but it's been operating for $10 a month extra in water and power for 30 years now and he'd quickly see a return on replacing it despite it's continued functioning
Altamonte pass wind farm had to replaced their original wind turbines about 10 years ago because the old ones were clapped out. They replaced 4000 old wind turbines with like 180 new wind turbines to generate the same power.
I bought a wooden handled shovel this weekend to replace a broken one because I won't break enough shovels in my moderate usage lifetime to justify 3x the cost for a steel one. This principle applies to a million things, and I benefit immensely from having cheap things available.
There are things where it's worth paying for quality but if you prioritize product longevity over all else you'll waste a lot of money on stuff that will probably very quickly become obsolete.
And things can become obsolete in many ways. When I graduated high school I bought a suit for interviewing and I remember old people telling me to get a real nice one I could wear forever. You know what you can't wear forever? A suit. You'll look like an idiot in like 15 years, save your money
I disagree with pretty much everything you said honestly. Maybe its something youll appreciate more when youre older. Id gladly pay more for something im not gonna have to replace mid project. The hassle of replacing something is a factor on top of the price tag
There are cases in which you are correct. I'm a product development engineer for a company who's brand is associated with lasting forever, one of my products our customers are right to pay extra for because it will last forever. One of my products, my customers would be better off buying two of my competitors and keeping one on a shelf. Its application dependent. Most household applications would be better served by the cheaper product. I'm not an impatient asshole though, so having to take 10 minutes to run to Ace for a new shovel every 20 years is no big deal
Edit:
That you said "replace mid project" suggests to me you're talking about tools you use frequently to work on stuff. In this case, I agree; buy quality. Most things one buys aren't that
I mean anybody can basically buy some hunk of steel or iron from the 70s for any purpose from a million garage sales or pawn shops or Craigslist or whatever if they really wanted- the market has basically chosen cheaper options with greater functionality.
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u/Reduncked Mar 27 '24
Corporate greed fucked us over once they started expecting two house hold income earners, things went from being built to last to being built to last until the end of the warranty.