[bombcar]

Anyone who does serious work with ancient technologies knows both that the older stuff was much more repairable but also needed to be repaired much more often.

Material and building science has advanced a mind boggling tremendous amount - even modern toilets are significantly better than an actual un-upgraded 40’s - if you can find it.

At the same time we can mass manufacture endless cheap plastic shit.

[eru]

> At the same time we can mass manufacture endless cheap plastic shit.

You say it like that's a bad thing.

[amarant]

Good or bad are subjective, but "endless cheap plastic shit" certainly does lower the average quality of goods available today.

[eru]

What do you care about the overall average quality? You don't need to buy them.

You only need to worry about perhaps the average of the things you buy.

[bombcar]

Exactly - what most people are really complaining about when they say everything is crap these days is that other people make different decisions about purchasing, or that they wish they were forced to buy the higher quality item.

It is a bit annoying to have to search and find high-quality items, but it's still doable.

[chimpanzee]

It’s amusing that you presume to know what people are really complaining about.

Even better is pointing out a perfectly valid concern regarding higher search costs, and then brushing that aside altogether simply because it doesn’t completely prevent search.

[chimpanzee]

Some reasons one might care about average quality:

1. Environmental damage

2. Higher search costs

3. Higher transaction costs

4. Opportunity cost