Industrialization and automation brought down the cost of goods, making them much more accessible to more people.

But they absolutely simultaneously resulted in lower quality goods in many areas.

As an example, people used to buy hand crafted furniture after buying an home, and it lasted them a lifetime because it was made with such high quality material and with such craftsmanship. It was also very expensive, which motivated keeping it for so long and passing it on to future generations.

Today the furniture we buy is much less expensive as a percentage of income but the quality is crap and you may end up needing to replace it once the finish has worn off because refinishing would be as expensive as buying another crap quality piece of furniture.

The same goes for clothing and many other goods.

It’s not that nobody makes any high quality goods anymore, but they are several times the price and are very low volume because of the cheap crappy alternatives.

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astrange 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> Today the furniture we buy is much less expensive as a percentage of income but the quality is crap and you may end up needing to replace it once the finish has worn off because refinishing would be as expensive as buying another crap quality piece of furniture.

But that's not a problem and is likely a good thing. eg it lets you move more often which reduces your commute.

Though none of my Ikea furniture has ever failed and most of it is ~15 years old.

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Rohansi 2 hours ago | parent [-]

> But that's not a problem and is likely a good thing. eg it lets you move more often which reduces your commute.

You can still move if furniture was more expensive and higher quality. You'd be able to sell what you have and buy new or used wherever you move. Most furniture is very consumable now so you just throw it away and buy new. You can't restore old furniture so the used market is full of stuff nobody really wants if they have the choice.

	▲	fc417fc802 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The used market in every city I've ever lived in has had plenty of forever furniture but it isn't cheap. Which is exactly what you'd expect.

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fc417fc802 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> because refinishing would be as expensive as buying another crap quality piece of furniture.

In most cases refinishing won't even be an option. Veneered plywood is bad enough but MDF doesn't even have that and some cheap end tables and interior doors are literally just a sheet of veneer affixed to cardboard ribs.

Not that I'm complaining. Those end tables are seriously impressive pieces of engineering given what they're made of and can had for barely more than pocket change.

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WalterBright 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> It was also very expensive

> but they are several times the price and are very low volume because of the cheap crappy alternatives

So high quality goods were expensive and still are expensive.

Not sure what your point is.