Thread

Replies (60)

πŸ›‘οΈ
↩ replying to Kajoozie Maflingo
Sure. But that doesn't mean they were made to last. It just means that they were easy to repair. Because of the old tech, they broke more frequently than the newer tech. And things had to be replaced to keep it going. Most of the old car parts are super rough in terms of precision. It's like how the hinge design has evolved in foldable phones. It's just a matter of better tooling over time creates better products that last longer (if the manufacturer wants it). But the point is that, it's not because it is old that things were designed to last. A bunch of crap didn't survive.
I think it’s both. You’re right to call out survivor bias. Also, a lot of food and housing is clearly garbage. Clothes are all made out of plastic. Everything is made in China now and they’re really good at optimizing for cost and not safety and health. Monetary debasement does actually affect these things.
πŸ›‘οΈ
Old things were also often prohibitively expensive. Hardly anyone owned anything, and everything was shared by lots of people. My Grandpa's bed was solid and lasted a long time, but 6 people slept in it, at a time. Crowded in like sardines and sometimes kids would fall right off. And there was one truck for 9 people and the kids rode in the open bed. Every bump in the road was life-threatening. People died in car accidents, constantly, even though the cars were glacially slow. Total death traps. And they guzzled gas like crazy. Nobody misses that old bed. Nobody misses that old truck.
↩ replying to Laeserin πŸ‡»πŸ‡¦
You miss it a little when you work on a new truck. There can be middle grounds that optimize for the good parts of each. Modern vehicles have went far in one direction. Most are not durable or repairable now, and many of the efficiencies come at the cost of major repairs (often making the vehicle disposable) a lot sooner. Safety has been a good gain though. Having the car crush instead of occupants is much better. But shit like plastic oil pans and drain plugs that barely screw in are ridiculous when those parts failing costs an entire engine. Like most things, it's not all or nothing. Fiat doesnt help. Mass production is also an issue. We have more people than we used to.
Anyone who has taken apart both old and modern things has see the design choices the engineers made and they know things have moved from more durable to more inexpensive. We've witnessed it first hand. It's abundantly clear, and no amount of gaslighting is going to get us to disbelieve what we've personally experienced. Equally important though is that old things were much more repairable than the things we have now. This does make them **seem** more durable because they stick around for generations until eventually replacement parts are no longer available. But the hilarious thing about it is that they don't frequently **need** repaired. Ironic. You'd have an easier time arguing that it's good that things are no longer made to last. One could argue that prices are lower, things are more readily available, and that the disposability is good because it creates more jobs (scraping things for metals to recycle, sales people, shipping companies, trash service, etc.). Perhaps the fact that they don't last as long is compensated by being able to buy multiple of them for the same price and the set of them combined might last as long as one of the old stuff.
Maybe not, but many things from past production used better materials and are simpler to repair. I've seen it in vehicles and many other things. Nothing lasts forever in every environment, but I call bullshit on the idea that things have always been as shitty as they are now. It is also true that things get replaced due to new features, efficiency, etc but that doesn't mean there won't be other downsides. One being reparability and complexity. New and old are neither always good or bad. But in general, quality and repairability have taken the backseat. Most things I see now seem to be disposable. Some of that is due to complexity demand (more stuff in a thing is harder to repair). Most is just fiat nonsense, in my opinion.
πŸ›‘οΈ
↩ replying to Mattβš•οΈ
A lot is cost. The populations using the things have absolutely exploded in number and they managed to drive down the real price of everything, while still responding quickly to the increased demand. People complain about quality, but they also complain about supply shortages and rising prices. Something has to give. One reason real estate prices are so high is because the prices of consumer goods are so low. The money leftover went into investment-grade goods, driving up their prices.
πŸ›‘οΈ
Yes ... quality things last longer and still exist centuries later. The older, crappier stuff falls apart and gets tossed out. This gives the appearance that everything old was made of high quality. Then there are old farts that experienced the general higher quality from decades ago, and know for a fact that things were generally higher quality back then.