GoldenEraFan
One Too Many
- Messages
- 1,164
- Location
- Brooklyn, New York
This thread basically sums up the opinion I've had of how things have been made since the day I was born. Here's my rant. I grew up in the '90s and basically was swamped with cheap plastics. The apartment I grew up in was basically a time-capsule from the mid-1980's, which still had that cheap disposable feeling to it, though we did use our 1984 Whirlpool refrigerator (off-white with a fake wood handle) for a good 20 something years. I recall the edge of it starting to pit with rust from years of condensation though. The major problem I find is that we've put computers in everything. Whenever an appliance or car breaks down now, it's always the computer and since fixing a computer chip has apparently become "difficult" it's become the norm to just throw it away and buy another one. It's all business of course, why build reliable stuff that will last forever when you can make junk and force people to keep buying it. Then again, companies offer warranties so what's the point of making junk if it'll be replaced or fixed for free and no profit to the company? I'm in my 20s, grew up with computers and yet I still find the fact that everything is computer run a bit unsettling. My current phone is a 2007 Samsung and does all I need it to do, make phone calls. On the subject of cars, I live in the city and don't need one, but our family car is a 2000 Honda Odyssey. The entertainment feature? No navigation system, no duel overhead DVD players, just an old fashioned CD player/radio. Now in truth, cars of 2012 have been really impressing me with their designs. Edges, curves and chrome are starting to come back, but these things are so technology heavy it's hard to even consider them "automobiles" rather than computers on wheels. I watched a review of the new Nissan Leaf, which I consider a nice looking car, but when the man in the video turned the car on, it sounded like he turned on a Windows Vista, complete with the little musical que they give computers. And clothes? I'm sure every fedora lounge member knows how poorly made most clothes are today, so I'll cut to the chase, all my vintage attire looks, fits and feels better than anything modern I've worn. One last word on comparison of old and new stuff: luxury items. There doesn't seem to be a quality difference anymore, luxury just refers to the label. In a recent article on the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster, they talked about finding a 1910's era alligator pocketbook, and compared it with the current most expensive alligator pocket book from the same company and claimed that the 1910's pocketbook was far superior in quality. I guess today it's brand name over brand quality.