I had a washing machine that finally died, it was bought in the late 90s and lasted until now, it was a good machine and was very reliable. We decided that we would get a new machine without an agitator in it and large enough to wash bedding. Our new washing machine is an expensive piece of garbage.
It doesn't wash even half as good as the old one, it has a computer on board that senses the weight of the items inside and fills the water to a certain point based on that to conserve water. It almost never fills enough and our clothes and bedding almost always comes out dry in a few spots and we have to rewash it again.
This is a common trend with everything we buy in this day and age. You could buy a car in the 80s and it would last the life of the car if you preformed a routine maintenance on it. You could but and replace parts with relative ease. The vehicles they make now are made of plastic and fall apart if you hit a large pothole. It's almost cheaper to buy new car than to fix it, because trying to fix it yourself is almost impossible. When you open the hood, you can't even see the engine on the newer vehicles, there are plastic shrouds and tubes everywhere.
We used to be able to buy things that would last a very long time because they were well made, the manufacturers used to use steel, aluminum, cast iron, and other types of metal on their products, but now in an effort to save money everything is made out of plastic, nylon and other materials that break easily. The local land fills are becoming cluttered with millions of tons of plastic garbage that can't be reused.
When you buy anything nowadays you rarely hear of anyone who fixes it, and instead they take it back and get a new one. My wife has a kitchen aid mixer that she bought in 1998, she bought it refurbished and it has lasted her until now and the thing still works like a charm. She will not buy a new one because her old one has been so good and still is to this day.
I wonder if we will ever go back to having our merchandise well made ever again? Or are we always going end up buying new garbage.
Scott Goerz
