i fix all sorts of industrial machines for a living, the Chinese manufacturers keep me busy, so we may be loosing jobs to manufacturing but we have also created a lot of work for guys like me, because its all extremely poorly built.. but try to for example find a decent quality jointer made in the USA, good luck , you may find one that's not made offshore. SCM in Italy is not bad, a lot of it is real garbage.
the problem I often see is that the inferior products also come from companies that are here and gone then they are quite quickly obsolete. once parts can no longer be maintained and there is no company to represent the product, it is technically obsolete. sure I can often repair its parts, but often things like motors are of such proprietary design , its impractical.
often the problem is the way corners are cut in the design stages, inadequate engineering , cutting corners to save cost. . stuff looks great on web pages , nice paint ! , things buyers dont see is crappy castings. low quality bearings . switches and things that are K tel quality. parts made of plastic where traditionally they would be metal.
I see a lot of such examples. Keeps me busy. I dont agree with the principles of creating a throwaway society. I know a washing machiene can easily be made to last a generation. we had that technology 50 years ago when we used to build stuff that way. the problem as a whole affects a whole lot more than only machienry , it is our cars , all the products we buy pretty much. the codffee pot, its pastic not made ot last, i tmight make 5 years. can you smell the cofee burning?
the cost is the envionmental damage that results of such practices being is completely unregulated. desktop printers with proprietary and expensive cartridges that are often replaced are a great example of unnecessary pollution.
want to buy a cheap chinese made ball washer?, go ahead I don't police the world. we can dig a big hole and bury all that plastic stuff, and I'll be gone from the planet in due course.
This stuff would bug me more if I had kids. the next generations will be taxed with the responsibility and cost of dealing with the problems of accumulated pollution. I won't be present to care. Its a world wide problem. the way I see it we don't have any wordwide governing power that could step in and say,, look we need to build things better, because this practice of building disposable crap is harming the earth.
We don't need ot use plastics to make furniture, we could do it the old way using natural materials that are biodegradable. Restore a 1930's couch and look what its made of, no plastic no faom, biodegradable parts, wood horsehair, stuffing made from straw or horsehair. fabrics made from felt or burlap or silk or horsehair or leather.. hemp was banned, why? you cant; get high on hemp but it was banned because its a relative plant to marijuana? or was it because it interfered with the oil industrie's products?
youll buy one made of foam rubber and plastic leather look-alike becaue it is more reasonably priced and it helps your budget. your budget controls those decisions. It would cost money to pay for labor to restore a couch that can last and be renewed, recovered and re-used so you buy a plastic one, it serves the purpose, its cheaper so its a "good" financial decision. youll also go theorugh several couches in your own lifetime. If it looked dirty, you'd dump it.
corporations run on decisions made for financial reasons because if they do not they fail to be cometitive. Money has no conscience.
will it make a difference to the world as a whole if you buy a cheap ball washer? well yes and no , you realize you are such a tiny part of the issue that your efforts are seemingly so insignificant, so they do not justify any personal expense. Is your environmental footprint significant?
I'd love to change the world, but I don't know what to do , so I leave it up to you. That was a lyric from " ten years after", over 50 years ago.. It still rings true , to me. and no I won;t solve it, this is human nature.
we make decisions that affect us, our families, maybe our close communities,. we quickly disconnect ourselves from problems of the "outside world"
Im not on a soap box saying what you should do. I just recognise this as a larger issue , Its not as if I have an answer. We are just "people living in competition."
Personally I dont use one, its not something I need or want in my house. another plastic gizmo that needs a table to sit on and a cord to plug in. No thanks.. I have lots of those. what I do, I rub the balls on my shirt as I pick them up lol ! Works for me ! ;-) You do what you want to.
