In this increasingly "politically correct" world where nobody seems eligible to be different from anyone else — lest someone gets offended — I find myself increasingly "offended" by the way such concepts as "The Average Person" is becoming more and more part of the landscape.
This morning, I was working with some photo editing software and griping a bit about the various features it lacked, and my colleague burst out saying:
"Well, the Average Person just doesn't need those features..."
Pardon Me, but I Don't Care!
Growing up, I was taught that "generalizing" was a bad idea and that I would be wiser to moderate my language with qualifiers like MOST people, instead of just saying PEOPLE and such.
I feel pretty much the same way about "The Average Person," because it has been my experience of life that there actually is no such thing as average. And to the extent that there might actually be such a thing as "average," I sure as hell am not it!
And don't get me wrong... I'm not so intellectually stunted as to not be aware that when you are creating a product — like software — you have to draw a line somewhere, in order to limit just how many bits and pieces you decide your product needs to include.
So why does "average" get me so riled up?
Flowers coming to life in our garden...
Averageness Limits Choice...
To me, one of the better examples of "averageness" would be giant retailer Wal-Mart.
Wallyworld manages to maintain bargain basement prices by pretty broadly avoiding anything but middle-of-the-road products that are pretty much guaranteed to be "popular."
Because of the way it conducts business, it leaves in its wake tens of thousands of failed "specialty stores" where you could get the interesting and unique and definitely-not-average.
The likes of Wal-Mart — and what that type of organization represents, philosophically speaking — are also a large part of the reason we now buy and new toaster when the old one stops working... rather than getting it repaired. Because you pretty much can't buy an above-average toaster that would be worth repairing, rather than throwing away... anymore.
And frankly, I don't like that kind of waste!
Strawberries blooming in our back yard...
They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To!
I still remember a fellow named Floyd Putnam who had a small appliance repair shop when I still lived in Austin, Texas, back in the 1990's. Mr. Putnam could fix pretty much anything, and usually for less than $20... but even he saw the writing on the wall:
"I can't fix these new-fangled pieces of plastic crap," he'd say, "it's just a cheap circuit board attached to the thinnest sheet metal. They don't make 'em like they used to!"
Mr. Putnam was nearing retirement age (OK, so he was mid-70's, but who's counting?) when I moved to Washington state, but I we well aware that he was slowly becoming a victim of too many "average" toasters, irons, space heaters and other small appliances mostly made of plastic.
I think about Mr. Putnam from time to time... and it makes me consider the question whether we — as a society; as a species — are really better off because we can buy a chintzy hair dryer for $12 that needs to be replaced every 3-4 years... rather than spend $50 on one we keep for 20 years... because it IS made "the way they used to be?"
I don't have the answer, by the way... but it does make you think...
Thanks for reading!
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Created at 190504 02:11 PST
1004
There are a lot of factors that go into manufacturing considerations, retail pricing, and everything in between. Economic analysis gets messy fast, and anyone with a simple answer to questions like price and quality changes over time is probably either ignorant or arrogant. Why do people buy Harbor Freight drills instead of Hilti? Some don't anticipate needing long-term tools, can't afford better quality, or expect theft or damage before they break. Then there are matters of international trade, domestic fiscal policy, individual time preference, etc.
I wish I had more options to buy stuff "made like it used ta be" though, even though nostalgia also distorts that perception of the past sometimes, too. Tonka trucks were better when they were made out of metal. It is good to have the option to fix electronics. Buttons trump touch screens in cars, and I want a physical keyboard on my phone. It would be nice to not have to wait for updates to download every other time I turn on a device.
Things that fit the average or appeal to the least common denominator are never going to revive quality. An apocryphal story about military logistics comes to mind. Supposedly the military took measurements of recruits to determine what the "average" soldier measured so they could simplify uniforms, and it turned out none of the hundreds measured fit the "average" single standard they calculated. Likewise, just listen to pop music and see how pathetic it is when popular taste is pursued instead of artists fostering excellence and innovation in music.
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There are many intangibles in the equation @jacobtothe... like the speed of technology, these days; stuff is obsolete between the time you pick it up at Best Buy and the time you open the box at home; there's our thirst for "novelty," although I suspect part of that is artificially created; there's the societal pressures to always strive to have "the biggest pile of toys," which means sacrificing quality for quantity... the list is long.
I happen to value well-made things, and such ideas as "heirloom quality." I was born and raised in Denmark; people live in 300-year old buildings... they could have been knocked down and given way to modern apartment blocks, but they were built well and instead get renovated over and over. I still have all the hand tools my dad gave me for my 16th birthday.
I'm not saying or suggesting that everyone should think like me, but I am saying that I really would rather not have my way of thinking be made obsolete by the underlying "Wal-Mart-ization" of the world... to use the Harbor Freight example... there should absolutely be a Harbor Freight option, BUT when that approach causes the quality tool maker to go out of business... then I see that as a problem.
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Consider also the old schoolhouse in my town. It may be old, but the only major barrier to using it again is the need to renovate it for handicapped access. It is sturdy still. Why demolish it? That would be wasteful.
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So many things I agree with here @denmarkguy
The generalisations to not offend are the most hilarious. And yet people are now trained up to be 'prepared to offend' but in a way making a population that is always on the verge of offense and being little 'word police' is not only scary but it always turns back on them. The 'self righteous' who feel they are on the 'side of the good' eventually fall into a group of offenders. As the old adage says, "Live by the sword die by the sword" so just insert P.C. in there and it's fairly true.
The mass produced blandness of planned obsolescence is so odd it's laughable. And now that we've so much garbage it will be considered the 'everyman's' problem, but not the huge corp that was pumping it out. I'm sure we'll all see the 'solution' in some new tax that would ironically be more expensive than our having had to buy LESS things of GOOD value that we can FIX but such sublte irony is often lost on the masses of today.
I did a project where I lived like it was 1955 for a year and replaced many kitchen things with authentic old pieces from 55 or earlier. I still have those things. I even bought an old 1951 refrigerator that was running in someones basement and it is STILL going strong and since I've had it I've had to replace a brand new one twice!
Our coffee maker is the old perculator I bought at a tag sale for pennies, works wonderful, my blender is also an old 50's one bought off ebay and it purss like a porsche. I have a 'new one' from 'wallyworld' I used in my studio for chopping and shredding paper for art projects it was loud and lasted about a month.
We live in odd times.
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We live in very odd times, indeed.
And the whole planned obsolescence thing has so many strange turns and twists I barely can follow anymore, and the throwaway society values has some very interesting ramifications:
Case in point: When you're in the store business here in Washington state, we get all this cheap junk that's now in that impossible-to-get-into plastic clamshell packaging to prevent tampering. A whole new kind of garbage. Lo and behold, the state now also has a specific "litter tax" you must pay if your retail establishment sells products in clamshell packaging, shrink wrap or clear plastic sleeves (like greeting cards). Feels like they are "getting me," both coming and going...
Very interesting experiment you conducted there... I feel how that works, because I used to go visit my elderly auntie who had everything "original" to the house... built in 1939. And that stuff was SOLID and it WORKED!
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We are SO proud to have you as a member of our
FANTABULOUS Power House Creatives family!
uvoted and/or resteemed!
❤ MWAH!!! ❤
#powerhousecreatives
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We live in a culture to buy cheap and replace it as soon as it stops to function!
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Yes, but why?
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Capitalist is the answer. ;)
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And what do you mean by "capitalist"?
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And by "capitalism," you mean what, exactly? Free markets, or an interventionist political system riddled with corporate cronyism? The two concepts are in opposition, yet both are called "capitalism."
Also, your definition of "capitalist" is wrong in either instance.
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You play with semantic and I believe you already know the answer.
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You say a "capitalist" is someone who acts in accordance with the principles of "capitalism," and yet you accuse me of playing with semantics when I ask for clarification of what you mean. On the one hand, "capitalism" refers to political plunder. On the other, it refers to productive voluntary exchange. These concepts are in opposition. The former redistributes wealth to cronies of the political establishment. The latter creates wealth. All economic systems involve capital. The question is who controls it: the individual, or the State.
Many factors are involved in the economic status quo. Taxes at every stage of production increase costs artificially, meaning quality must be reduced to achieve a given consumer price. Price controls and trade restrictions on materials an labor also adversely affect costs. Subsidies, bailouts, regulatory capture, monopolies, cartels, nationalized industries, etc. prevent competition that would otherwise inform consumer choice and potentially encourage improvements. And those are just the obvious factors. The federal reserve market manipulations have resulted in increased costs for housing and diverted wealth into unsustainable investments, reducing the real wealth available to consumers, and often pinching their market choices from the demand side just as much as the corporate collusion cuts their choices in supply as well.
It should be obvious that these are all antithetical to laissez-faire free market capitalism. Corporations are political creations using political force to avoid such capitalism, yet their bigwigs are called "capitalists," too. Hopefully this clarifies why I am trying to get you to define terms that may not be as concrete as you think. Careless conflation doesn't help us study the real causes and effects in economic problems.
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Just wait for the brave new IoT-world, when a still perfectly fine appliance tells you after 2 or 3 years that it will stop working now, because the producer doesn't provide the necessary software updates anymore.
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There will be an underground economy of arduino-equipped electricians ready to fix that when it happens. And they will probably be "criminals" because of IP law. But they will be there.
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Somewhere along the way we have shifted from being original ad a positive to being socially acceptable and I believe with that has come the belief in catering to the average individual!
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