[Cyrus]

What do you think?

[Jack]

Absolutely. Make it the last 25 years and the drop is even more noticeable.

Now it's true that we have faster CPUs, cheaper RAM, and wireless everything - but the durability and reliability of products in general is, in my opinion, down a lot.

On the other hand, one can get excellent products, but the price is high.

[UIUCstudent01]

What products are you talking about?
I mean, computers which I use regulary, have improved.
Food still tastes good and clean at the market. (Pesticides and GMO's aside..)
Desks and furniture are still good. Structures still stand (although energy efficiency hasn't improved too much or at least more than it could have, but you know, profits.)
Soft drinks have replaced sugar with corn syrup (which you definitely can taste the difference. And the difference is really bad.) But, soft drinks are bad for you anyway..

Cheap plastic things made in China - are as high quality as they ever were.

Also, clothes are just fine in today's society - most people do not need rough work clothes - jeans and a shirt do fine. Socks may wear out a little too quickly though. But otherwise, they stay good. Coats and jackets are good (zippers break though - that could just be me), they have the same quality of warmth but at a mass produced-oil fueled way for our high population.

I vote, not at all. Name the products that have gone down in quality. Cars? I attribute it to wear and tear + users inabiltity to take care of them. (most of the time.)

[BiGG]

Cadillac or Daewoo

Rolex or Armitron

Sony or Apex

Sea Ray or Bayliner

Ralph Loren or Wal-Mart

Smuckers or Welch’s

Kitchen Aid or Sunbeam

X-Box or Game Cube

I think you pretty much get what you pay for just like always

[RonMN]

I haven't noticed...once PO set into my brain i've been buying pretty much EVERYTHING of super high quality so they last almost forever.

Did you know they make shovels with a solid fiberglass handle & reinforced core?

[Cyrus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')id you know they make shovels with a solid fiberglass handle & reinforced core?

[savethehumans]

I like another little trick they've come up with: quality is less, of course, but also they either

a) Make the regular size smaller, but charge the same price; or

b) Make the regular size LARGER, but charge MUCH more for it!

Oh, and that lower-prices-card at grocery stores? Try and recall how much that discounted product cost 10-15 years back. This price lower than that? The same? Didn't think so....Also, the more expensive price for the non-card holder? Ever wonder why it's THAT much more than the card price? Can YOU say, "They're gonna get their profits by hook or by crook?" Then you read the quarterly reports, and they STILL aren't doing too great?

Oh, yeah, LOTS of interesting things showing up in the ol' consumer economy--reduced quality being one of the top 5, for sure!

[Cyrus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')h, and that lower-prices-card at grocery stores? Try and recall how much that discounted product cost 10-15 years back. This price lower than that? The same? Didn't think so....Also, the more expensive price for the non-card holder? Ever wonder why it's THAT much more than the card price? Can YOU say, "They're gonna get their profits by hook or by crook?" Then you read the quarterly reports, and they STILL aren't doing too great?

[frankthetank]

Bigg~I had a friend with a Bayliner and one of those 75hp Force outboard motors...what a pile of shit...that boat should have never been produced

Quality is down...A good place to look is in housing. The quality of houses today is shit. A friend of mines grandpa built 3 houses (mostly by himself) in the '30s. These houses were constructed using hardwood (oak). What about your new mcmansion? What ...particle board and some drywall. Throw in a Kohler faucet to make it look "rich".

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('savethehumans', 'I') like another little trick they've come up with: quality is less, of course, but also they either

a) Make the regular size smaller, but charge the same price; or

......

[linlithgowoil]

i think the quality of most manufactured products has always been crap. one area where things have improved is cars - no doubt, but now, because they are so complex, you cant fix them yourself and have to pay someone tons of cash to do it.

stuff like fridges, washing machines etc. have always been of piss poor quality.

tv's, on the other hand, can generally last 20 years no problem i've found - no matter what brand it is.

anything with moving parts tends to break at the drop of a hat though. probably because all the stuff is built by slave labour in china - would you take any care over building something if you were being paid just enough to buy some bread every day?

[Aaron]

Engineered Obsolescence

Plastics which degrade prematurely.

Single stitch clothing

Lower thread count textiles.

And my personal pet peeve - Acronyms.

Before the Business Administration jerks arrived, we used acronyms to abbreviate long names. Like NASA, instead of National Aeronautics & Space Administration.

But since the pseudo-intellectual's arrived, acronyms have become another marketing tool.

Sometimes the new acronyms are longer to pronounce than what they stand for. Or the ultimate - The new acronym stands for nothing at all... it's just a cute name.

I'm with Bill Gates - We are experiencing the effects of decades of "feel good" education where everybody just "does their best".

I nearly fudged my huggies when Earthlink wanted to charge a MONTHLY fee to split out broadband service to multiple computers with a hub. You now must purchase their hub for a rental fee every month.

[BiGG]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Aaron', 'E')ngineered Obsolescence

Plastics which degrade prematurely.

Single stitch clothing

Lower thread count textiles.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Aaron', '.').....

I nearly fudged my huggies when Earthlink wanted to charge a MONTHLY fee to split out broadband service to multiple computers with a hub. You now must purchase their hub for a rental fee every month.

[johnmarkos]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Aaron', '
')Engineered Obsolescence

Plastics which degrade prematurely.

Single stitch clothing

Lower thread count textiles.

And my personal pet peeve - Acronyms.

< . . . >

I'm with Bill Gates - We are experiencing the effects of decades of "feel good" education where everybody just "does their best".

[johnmarkos]

I just thought of something else. Back in the 50s, it was normal for affluent U.S. residents to trade in their cars every two years or so. That is, if it was 1955, driving a 1953 Chevy was not cool. Nowadays, nobody really notices if you keep your car for ten years or more. When I was growing up in the 70s, few cars had over 100,000 miles on them. Now this is commonplace (in the 80s, most carmakers added another digit to their odometers).

So some things are better made than they used to be. Maybe we think the stuff of the past was better made because all the poorly made stuff from back then . . . well, it's gone.

[JoeW]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('linlithgowoil', 'i') think the quality of most manufactured products has always been crap. one area where things have improved is cars - no doubt, but now, because they are so complex, you cant fix them yourself and have to pay someone tons of cash to do it.

[The_Virginian]

YES. Quality is in decline over-all, with some notable exceptions.

Expect it to get worse.

[SupplyConcerns]

Given that we haven't begun the decline from peak yet, I don't see the logic behind all of our products being of lower quality. It's a consumption-centered age - we clearly have masses of cheaply made products as well as readily available high quality products at higher prices. When our economic system encourages maximized profits and consumption, it makes perfect sense that the full spectrum of quality becomes available for any given product. But yes, not much is hand-crafted these days.