It's time for Americans to buy better, less disposable and more repairable stuff, that they can hand on to their kids.
And it's time for them to own it outright, rather than getting put on a debt-slavery, monthly-payment treadmill.
And it's time for them to own it outright, rather than getting put on a debt-slavery, monthly-payment treadmill.
Why am I looking at a broken laundry basket? Why are all my laundry baskets broken, just from hauling clothes around? Why is the shelf that I'm looking at now broken on top? I have a chest of drawers that is now ~45 years old and was for the time a cheap piece of junk, that is, particle board and wood, but it's still in great condition, basically like new.
It would only take a bit more plastic on my laundry baskets to last indefinitely, just like my cheap chest of drawers has lasted decades because it only has a bit more thickness on the drawer bottoms than anything does nowadays. You shouldn't have to step up a factor of magnitude in cost to get something that will last, and to be honest I've been bitten a few times even then and merely gotten a higher grade of trash.
Personally I am quite lucky, having learned woodworking from a very talented shop teacher in high-school, I am more than capable of building my own furniture. One of my first projects was an end-table with a chessboard built into the top with a few decorative inlays, all cherry and maple. When I built it, I put maybe $20 extra (nearly a decade ago, forgive my memory) worth of support boards, the table is one of the most solid things I've ever personally see, and was capable of supporting 3 ~150lb people standing on it (yes, it was fun to test this). I remember having to beg my mom to purchase the wood, and the total was under $200, ballpark $150 I think, not including labor of course. I fully expect it to last well past my own life, and it will be a great hand-me-down to my kids.
Contrast this to a nice looking bookshelf I picked up from Ikea two years ago that had felt somewhat sturdy in the store, the shelves themselves were made of real(!) softwoods. It was $130, which felt extremely cheap, but worth a shot. The thing lasted 6 months, then summer came, with it's humidity, and the thing collapsed. Turns out having correctly designed supports is pretty important, who would've thought, certainty not a multi-billion dollar furniture company. So, for having to spend 3 hours assembling it myself, I got to watch it implode when the weather turned, lovely! The sad reality is that this is the standard for household goods in many American homes.
The experience of buying that utter garbage bookshelf prompted me to start building a workshop of my own and to start woodworking again. I had gotten a burning desire to build high quality and long lasting products for people. I've been working on small projects when time permits, mostly drink coasters and cutting boards so far, but I'm actively planning out bigger pieces of furniture as future projects. I've given a couple items away as gifts, and even made a few sales over on etsy[0]. Compared to writing software, which is lucky if it lives for more than few years, I've gotten a massive sense of satisfaction in knowing that for each product I build, it has a good shot at completely outliving the owner.
Aside from home furniture and some home electronics, much of the discarded once-use garbage seems to be plastic packaging of items.
Lest us forget that in 2001 the Honda Insight achieved above 40mpg, the 90's compact cars also could achieve high fuel-efficiency targets.
At the detriment of safety, an old car can in some cases be better than a brand new car, especially in price. New cars are heavier and increased weight does not inherently mean 'safer'
I find I buy much less stuff. I get buyer's remorse from spending money that I should save as a war chest and the quality of stuff I buy today is mostly absolute crap.
Bikes, some items of clothing, furniture, DIY/garden tools, pretty much every kitchen utensil and gadget could be handed down after that period of time if it's high quality. A lot of electrical stuff like radios and TVs are still useful after 20 years.
Like my incandescent light bulbs? Plenty of things should not be kept around for twenty years simply because their replacements are better for the environment. At a certain point the accumulated impact of an old thing will exceed the impact of making and operating a new thing to replace it.
While I agree with your other examples, I think power tools are a bad example. I'm using a wired drill and circular saw from 20 years ago, which both still work perfectly. How is buying a modern power tool which requires disposable batteries that 99% of people will dispose of improperly a better choice for the environment? My guess is that the industry shifted toward batteries because of convenience, not efficiency, but I could be wrong.
same with clothes. my mother saved a lot our children clothes and gave them no my sister when she had children.
furniture is a huge one. my grandparents and parents own a lot of furniture that could easily last hundreds of years, their current stuff is going on 50 years, and I got my eye on a lot of pieces that look like new still. and a hell of a lot better than anything you can buy today.
art and decor are others. kitchen items, basically any non perishable good in your house that isn't fixed?
My clothing will be worn out, as will shoes and so forth, but if they didn't, they could be handed down.
Basically, everything that is super cheap today could be handed down, that which is expensive (car, laptop) won't be.
Correct the incentives and behavior follows.
I run an e-commerce business, and the reality is that a huge chunk of our customer base isn't reluctantly parting with their hard earned cash in order to meet a need but instead genuinely enjoy the anticipation and payoff that come with making a purchase.
I would go so far as to say that for the average consumer, spending money is only really seen as a loss in the few cases where the cost is high enough to cause immediate-term financial stress.
The overwhelming majority of people will still spend 100% of their income on disposable crap - it's just that said income is now smaller.
The fossil fuel tax solves excess fossil fuel consumption, and redistribution wealth from rich to poor solved the poor problem.
It was $10.99/lb. Which is an increase from $9.99 and felt “expensive”. Then I realized that my $9.99 is paying for the workers at the grocery store, the electricity to power the cooler, the refrigerator, the truck driver, the ice for shipping, the loading dock, the boat, the fishermen, and every other piece of work that went into getting me that fish, in Pittsburgh, in November.
If I wanted to go catch a Salmon in the Atlantic, I could work for the next 5 years of my life and probably not be successful. I’m terrible at building boats, I wouldn’t know what bait to use, or where the fish would even be. I’d probably die at sea.
I write all of that, because at the end of it all, ANY meat or fish for <$10 a pound is an incredible bargain and a testament to our society and specialization in the US. And I think we are living in an incredible time of abundance that is likely unsustainable.
So! What’s the solution? I’m shifting to hobbies with a “buy once” view that may have a high up-front cost, but a low long term recurring cost (e.g. disc golf, guitar (except for string replacement).
that seems absurd..
If people are actually doing this because they do not have the $15 to purchase something, off the internet, we have bigger issues to tackle.