Perhaps your experience is different from ours (and everyone else I know). Maybe you’ve managed to find goods made in China that were somehow equal to the quality we used to get in US made goods. Personally, I’ve never seen it.[/quote]
Ok, that might well be.
I’ve always had an eye for quality so I don’t buy junk.
I’m a big fan of globalization because it brought “luxury” the masses.
Quality is not about durability but design and utility.
For example, take Ikea. They brought designer furniture to the masses. Of course the durability of their furniture doesn’t compare to the solid oak furniture of the past. But that oak furniture was crudely designed, finished, and expensive. Looking inside any old house that’s never been updated in decades and you’ll see the “quality” of the past.
Now young households can furnish their apartments cheaply and nicely for a certain period of time, then move on.
Today, we have so many more choices that our grandparents didn’t have. Granted, many of those new products are of bad quality. But we don’t have to buy them.[/quote]
We disagree greatly on what “quality” means. To me, quality is ALL about durability.
BTW, I think you consider yourself to be an environmentalist. Do you think it’s better that a piece of furniture lasts generations, or is it better for the environment if people can “move on” with new things? As an example, I have an Ethan Allen set that was purchased from a neighbor in the 1970s, when it was already old and used; it’s still in perfectly good condition, and will probably easily last another hundred years or more.
Are you considering the environmental impact from initial production (pollution and resource usage) to the disposal of the goods? Building durable goods that last as long as possible is tantamount to protecting our environment.
