I recently
posted a blog reminiscing about changes I have seen in my almost eight
decades. Yesterday I posted about a pole
saw from Harbor freight, and Rob ( Observations on the road ) commented about
the poor quality of Craftsman tools.
This brought to mind how the quality of almost everything we buy has deteriorated
over the last fifty years.
When I was a
child my grandmother (who raised me) had a toaster that was steel: it was heavy
to lift. After years one of the heating
elements burned out and she had me take it to an appliance repairman in the
town and he replaced the heating element.
We had that toaster for my entire young life. Today I have a Cuisinart toaster that is so
light I am sure I could cave in the sides if I smashed it with my fist. I can’t count the number of toasters I have
owned over the past sixty years.
Remember
when the bumpers on cars were so substantial you could actually push another car
without damaging either vehicle, and the dashes were steel?
Craftsman
tools use to be the standard in durability; but now they have gone the way of
everything else – produced as cheaply as possible.
Back sixty
and more years ago people purchased things for a lifetime; now, nothing is expected
to last more than a few years.
This
generation has a different mindset; they don’t want to keep old things because ‘Wayfair has just what you need.’
the Ol'Buzzard
