Things Don't Last Anymore

Nearly anybody who's been around this world for a while will tell you that things don't last like they used to.

As one example, I used to buy bedroom slippers made by one particular US brand. They were expensive, but they'd last forever. I don't buy their slippers any longer because they're not the same as they used to be. They're made in China now and they definitely don't last very long at all.

And I can name a prominent mail-order vendor of clothing and outdoor stuff. I have bought two pairs of slippers from them, and they didn't last, either. (This company has a satisfaction guarantee, but if you send the product back to them, the refund you get will be $7 less than what you paid for the item. I'd rather go on using the rather worn—and nearly worn out--item.)

I have those two pairs of slippers and yet a third, and they're all falling apart. The problem is mainly that stitching between sole and upper seems to be quite inferior.  And—guess what? They’re all made in China.

I want to hasten to point out that I don't want to besmirch China and all its manufactures. I believe that China makes some high-quality products. I suspect this is what is going on: Besides the savings in labor costs that come from "off-shoring" manufacturing by American companies, I think they are probably knowingly and deliberately short-changing the customer on quality of material or quality of workmanship—to save still more money.

(To some extent stores like Walmart and customers who buy the very cheapest thing they can find are to blame. On the other hand, there is greed on the part of American companies and retailers. When an $80 Tommy Hilfiger or Ralph Lauren Polo shirt is made in a third-world country, it costs very little to make it. The seller makes a very good profit even when that shirt is on sale for a radically reduced price.)

This might properly be another subject since it is a different matter from clothing, but it still comes under my subject of "Things don't last." That's major appliances like refrigerators, dishwashers, and microwaves.

Take refrigerators. Refrigerators used to last 20, 30 years or more. Nearly every family had a second refrigerator, because they bought a new one but the old one still ran so they kept it to put in the cellar or garage. In my last home I had a refrigerator what was a 1977 model and it was still running fine when I left that place in 2001. So it was 24 years old.

Then I bought a refrigerator for my new home and it lasted 10 years. I was speaking to a friend who had to replace his refrigerator after only 6 years. I should not generalize from just two instances, but a repairman has told me that major appliances don't last these days, that they're not made like they used to be.

I surmise that the quality of the mechanical components has been cheapened. That plus, perhaps, the fact that refrigerators (etc.), like our cars, are starting to be more complex, with electronic components and even computers inside. Plus, people may not expect to keep refrigerators as long these days; they want modern kitchens and that means appliances with up-to-date appearance.

And you can't blame China for that one. We have some refrigerator makes and models made in other countries but the majority are US-made.

A counter trend is cars. It used to be that a car might last 6 or 7 years. They would start to rust after 3 or 4 years (at least in northern areas of the US where salt is applied to the roads in the winter). Nowadays cars will last much longer. The latest statistic I heard is that the average age of a car on US roads is now 11 years. (People are keeping cars longer both because they last longer and because they have gotten much more expensive: a car today, in the US, costs 10 to 15 times what a car cost in the late 1950s).

Update April 26, 2013. I just looked at the model/serial number plates in my GE (a "good old" American brand) microwave and GE refrigerator. The microwave was made in Korea and the fridge was made in Mexico. Shame on me for assuming that just because it's an American brand it was actually built in the US. The same, by the way, applies to cars, and I'm sure many people have bought cars with American names and believed they were getting something American-built when the car either was assembled somewhere else or it was made using major components--for example, an engine or transmission--from Canada or Mexico. Ironically, some cars with Japanese names are assembled in the US and might even have a greater precentage of "domestic content" than a car with an American name. The percentage of domestic content is listed on the window sticker which the car wears when it is in the dealer's showroom.

Update July 24, 2013. There was further confirmation that refrigerators don't last anymore from a man who works for a "major retailer," for whom he analyzes things like appliances' expected lifetimes, in order to help determine his employer's policy for the extended warranties it sells.

Copyright © 2013 by Richard Stein