[lettergram]

It might be an unpopular opinion, but globalization did this — the consolidation and exportation of manufacturing out of the west has decimated manufacturing capabilities in the countries.

My father was a tool maker (top of his profession, top shop at Molex for a time). He and everyone he knew had such pride in their work. They also knew who would use their products. They cared about the quality and worked hard to deliver. It was a personal pride thing, as much as anything else.

When you export manufacturing, people don’t know who they’re building for. Nor does near slave labor in some places create quality.

Not to mention, companies are trying to maximize profit. To contrast, the owner of molex at one point heard my dad needed a surgery. He came down on the shop floor, called him over and sent my dad (and our family) to the Mayo Clinic for 2 weeks to have the surgery done (all expenses paid). It wasn’t for profit, it was for a good business.

[janalsncm]

Globalization and planned obsolescence (PO) are just two prongs of the same thing: profit maximizing corporations. Another one is the pervasive subscription model. These companies want a consistent, predictable revenue stream.

In a way you can think of PO as a sort of subscription. If my AirPods last 3 years on average they cost me around $25 per year to own.

[lettergram]

100%, that said I don’t think you get the same degrading in quality when you know the people using the product. You simply can’t have your neighbor hating you for the bookshelf they made poorly.

[2143]

> To contrast, the owner of molex at one point heard my dad needed a surgery. He came down on the shop floor, called him over and sent my dad (and our family) to the Mayo Clinic for 2 weeks to have the surgery done (all expenses paid).

I don't know how often this happens in Western mega corporations (which is probably why you're surprised).

And you obviously haven't been to Japan. Yes, long hours, but your employer takes care of most aspects of your life. Healthcare, apartment, marriage, your kids education, everything. See this article by patio11: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan...

In the non-crappy businesses in India other people — coworkers, bosses, etc — taking care of you is routine. And — okay this is a terrible example — in the unfortunate situation that somebody dies, for instance, trust me, random people just help the family with funeral and stuff like that.

What I'm trying to say is this: the rest of the world isn't filled with morons and cattle.

Oh and by the way, across the world people want quality products. Even people from — gasp — the global South. We too want our fridges and washing machines and TVs and cars and everything else to last forever.

[lettergram]

I don't think the rest of the world is filled with morons haha. The rest of the world is trying to improve their lives.

However, I think you missed part of what I was saying, which patio11 actually touches on.

The west, particularly America, is individualistic & meritocratic. This leads to a lot of self-interest & overall refines the system as a whole. It'll also spur competition in a free-market, as people leave to start competitors. Etc. This is in contrast to "salary men" in Japan.

When you have globalization, you have:

(1) The cheapest possible workforce will be used and will drive out competitors who have higher expenses (the west does)

(2) Those goods are then exported and corners can be cut because there's little direct risk.

(3) The companies themselves have no employees where they're selling their goods, so there's little feedback (besides profit) to employers.

(4) Innovation & competition is dramatically reduced. To compete you effective need a very cheap workforce & sell below the larger players (who already have scale).

The ultimate result ends up being, poorer & cheaper quality products, made by people who don't use the products. This actually increases the profit margin to corporations. Yet, it's ultimately a race to the bottom at that point. Anyone who attempts to produce a higher quality product has to be significantly more expensive, and often fails in the market. It's why most "high quality" brands have slowly been bought out by the more profitable (low cost) players, then their brand names are used like a skin suit (as their quality decreases).