The trend of this thread seems to be anything greedy corporations can get their hands on, farm it out to the cheapest labor, and make the cheapest product they can. Support small local companies when ever your can and buy what you can made in the USA. There is still quality out there, it's hiding. Yes, it's expensive and I realize not everybody can afford it. But if you can, do it. I just bought a $200 shirt that is made here. It's built like a brick poophouse and will probably last me 10 years if not longer. Compare that to the $50 made in who knows where Ralph Lauren shirts I typically buy that last a year or so before the threads give it up.
Since someone brought up Toyota, I was talking to a GM engineer and said the reason the Japanese company's quality went to crap is they were forced to buy parts globally in order to compete on price. They used to buy parts from local Japanese suppliers where they had a close eye on quality. He may have been talking out of his arse, but it sounds plausible.
And to contribute- new car paint.
Phone/ Cable help lines. Fosters(when they went aluminum, and took away that.5 oz or whatever in the '90s), Mickey's (similar thing/timeframe to Fosters), Ingersol-Rand, New Cars, Air Travel, my waist(waste?)
kurk9
New Reader
12/16/12 2:43 p.m.
The build quality of pretty much everything.
patgizz
UberDork
12/16/12 5:49 p.m.
ebay - used to be you search 1954 chevy and get 120 results all 100% pertinent to your search. now you get 10,000 results with every universal part any dick tags their listing as fitting your vehicle, as they make sure they check the box next to every vehicle ever made.
/thread
Vigo
UltraDork
12/16/12 5:53 p.m.
Since someone brought up Toyota, I was talking to a GM engineer and said the reason the Japanese company's quality went to crap is they were forced to buy parts globally in order to compete on price. They used to buy parts from local Japanese suppliers where they had a close eye on quality. He may have been talking out of his arse, but it sounds plausible.
I think it has more to do with toyota deciding it wanted to shoot for the #1 volume in the world and trying to grow everything about the company in a short amount of time to achieve that.
I am glad for the general mood of annoyance at what has become of consumers and products. Its not a solution, but the first step is always acknlowledging the problem. 
Bababooey wrote:
The trend of this thread seems to be anything greedy corporations can get their hands on, farm it out to the cheapest labor, and make the cheapest product they can. Support small local companies when ever your can and buy what you can made in the USA. There is still quality out there, it's hiding. Yes, it's expensive and I realize not everybody can afford it. But if you can, do it. I just bought a $200 shirt that is made here. It's built like a brick poophouse and will probably last me 10 years if not longer. Compare that to the $50 made in who knows where Ralph Lauren shirts I typically buy that last a year or so before the threads give it up.
Since someone brought up Toyota, I was talking to a GM engineer and said the reason the Japanese company's quality went to crap is they were forced to buy parts globally in order to compete on price. They used to buy parts from local Japanese suppliers where they had a close eye on quality. He may have been talking out of his arse, but it sounds plausible.
And to contribute- new car paint.
i've got some concert shirts that i paid $20 for back in the early 90's that survived years and years of abuse- real abuse, like lying on my back in puddles of atf and dirt trying to change transmissions in driveways and yards- that are still in good shape all these years later.. of course, they haven't fit me for a decade or more, but they made it at least a decade before they all decided to shrink.. i can't ever imagine a situation where any shirt is worth $50, let alone $200 when my $6 3 packs of Hanes pocket t shirts get me a solid year and a half or so before they become too holy to keep using...
As we all type from our American made computer/smartphones, right?
The person who is my ex-wife.
FSP_ZX2 wrote:
The person who is my ex-wife.
That is usually because the sucking stopped
being single.
at one time it was hanging out late and doing whatever you pleased. Now it's lonely and boring.
aussiesmg wrote:
FSP_ZX2 wrote:
The person who is my ex-wife.
That is usually because the sucking stopped
Yes, there was a decease in literal suckage followed by a massive increase in the figurative type.
Car chase scenes. "Back in the day" a stuntman put on helmet and went for it, now there's too much computer effects and 10,000 cameras to cut to an different angle every second.
Stuff like this really sucks:
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/09/oobject_roundup_crazy_movie_camera_cars-2/
Back roads. Seems like when I was a kid you could go off and find an empty poorly maintained back road to hoon on. Now it seems like all of the roads I can find actually go somewhere and because of that, have people traveling on them. That and they never ever make a road tighter and twistier, only straighter and wider.
wbjones
UltraDork
12/17/12 7:57 a.m.
aussiesmg wrote:
FSP_ZX2 wrote:
The person who is my ex-wife.
That is usually because the sucking stopped
Steve, you are a BAD BAD person ... 
poopshovel wrote:
America.
I was just getting ready to post that. 
I work in manufacturing enviorment and the problem is not so much a greedy corporation, but the ability to turn out a product at a price consumers want to pay. Also, not to turn this into a political thread, but are plenty of regulations that can prevent a product from being produced here.
I struggle daily with this issue. We try to do as much production in the US as possible, but sometimes in order to meet a price point, you have to go to China or elsewhere, especially with molded plastic parts and PCBs. And it's not just a small difference in price, but a huge one in many cases. It's a sad state when you as a country price yourselves out of entire industries, and yes, we are at that state in many areas of manufacturing. I assume a company such as Toyota is also finding this to be the case. If we are, you know they and many others are as well.
Everything has repercussions as much as we pretend they don't, and layer upon layer of regulations and added expenses are to the point where we price ourselves out of competitiveness. It's easy to blame it on the "man", but businesses have to pass along the costs to due business. The cheaper an area is to produce goods, that's where they are going to go and who is going to be producing those goods. It's not rocket science.
As for cheap crap at Walmart, if people didn't buy it, it wouldn't be there. Simple as that.
winter
where the fudge is the snow?!
In reply to Ranger50:
Can you elaborate? I Live in a small city, yet I can buy amazing whole bean single-origin coffee that was roasted just a half mile down the road.
