This is something that has kind of been bothering me for a while. Things really came to a head when my mother told me that she got a new microwave. I was confused.
“Didn’t you get a new microwave not too long ago?” I asked.
“Well, it was two years ago,” she responded. She acted like that was a long time.
To put my confusion into perspective, the microwave she had before that lasted like 13 years! I remember the Christmas day my father pulled it out of his closet in the utility room. It was wrapped in newspaper (and I have been fond of wrapping presents in newspaper since that very moment). He plopped it down in the middle of our living room and I could tell by the smirk on his face that he was proud of the gift. To that point in my life, I don’t think I’d ever seen a box any bigger than that which did not contain a refrigerator.
My brother and I opened it as my mom and dad watched on. I had no idea what it was. A microwave at that point was absolutely foreign to me. But as soon as I saw that it heated up water is mere seconds for my hot chocolate, I was hooked.
Anywho, that massive microwave was a fixture in our kitchen for over a decade. It finally stopped working. Its feeble replacement was half the size and digital. I pointed out the longevity of the antique system and she laughed.
“Yeah, but that one was like three-hundred dollars.”
Yeah, but it lasted more than ten years, was bigger and unbelievably reliable. Nowadays, we go into Wal-Mart, Target or Kohl’s and buy a microwave for twenty bucks and we’re not all that upset when it stops working in a year or two . . . we just go buy another.
Of course, this doesn’t apply only to microwaves, it applies to pretty much everything. Vacuum cleaners, blenders, toasters, furniture, exercise equipment . . .everything. We consumers buy up all these cheap things that break down . . . so we buy more and have to get rid of the old.
We fill landfills, exhaust time and fuel at the expense of family time to continue to consume. But at least we are able to keep many quality individuals in China, Japan and Taiwan employed while doing so as our countrymen lose jobs to international outsourcing and cut-throat competition.
BTW: If you don’t understand why the Coneheads are pictured here, you probably don’t agree with anything I just wrote. The picture of the sign above was “borrowed” from the Influx Insights Blog. I highly recommend you follows the posts that show up there.
[tags]consumerism, capitalism, products, coneheads, microwaves, outsourcing[/tags]
6 Responses
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yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. YES! yes.
I’ve said it for years & people act like I’m nuts. Telephones used to last forever. You can still find phones from 1960 in thrift shoppes working perfectly. The newer ones need to be replaced constantly. Old vacuums..again.. lasted forever. My first vac was one my mother in law had purchased when SHE was first married. The one I got for xmas in 1987 had to be replaced in 1992. That one had to be replaced in 1993 when it sucked up a dime and shattered the plastic suction fan.
You’re tagged. http://www.rodneyolsen.net/2007/12/thankful.html
Good point Primal. My mother has probably had about 20 phones in the fifteen years since she stopped “renting” the ugly yellow phone withe long cord from AT&T.
The old refrain that Americans “want” cheap Chinese throwaway products is bs. We WANT products that last. But then the corporations that invested in all those Chinese sweatshops couldn’t keep pushing their cheap junk off on us.
It’s a vicious cycle; if you aren’t willing to purchase another piece of junk, you’ll do without when your piece of junk gives up.
Of course, if they made microwave ovens which lasted 13 years, then sales would drop off after a while because everyone would have a working microwave.