Whatever happened to quality?
I’m not real old but I seem to remember when things were made well.
I remember when cars were made of steel, not the recycled pop cans and plastic they build them with today, designed by some bright boy in Detroit to fall apart a year-or-so after you buy one at an inflated price so you can buy another one at an even more inflated price.
Houses used to be made solid and true, by skilled carpenters who knew how to build a home that could last for centuries. Nowadays, a little plywood, a little glue, a nail here and there and a some insulation slapped on and you’ve got a ready-made home-in-a-box ready to be hauled to wherever you want it. Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve got nothing against affordable housing, but it’s hard to get as excited about a prefab house as you’d get by the beautiful, sturdy old houses you’d find along Pleasant Street.
It’s sad, but quality is a rare thing in this day and age.
Just look at food.
Remember when a beautiful roast slow-cooked in the oven was a staple? Nowadays, fast food is a staple. Pour some more ketchup on it, slap some more cheese on it, and add a few more fries to it. That’s a meal nowadays.
But roasts aren’t exactly extinct. No sir.
Now they’ve got instant roasts. Just throw a roast in the microwave and it’s ready to eat in just 10 minutes. Can you believe it? A lot of quality there, no doubt.
Look at good-old-fashioned bacon. They’re even pushing that out the door with microwaveable bacon ready in five seconds.
And obesity is an epidemic and no one knows why. Could it have something to do with all the junk food? Or maybe all the hormones and God knows what else they’re pumping into our tomatoes, into our beef and everything else we grow?
What happened to quality? Was it just another causality of this throwaway society we’ve built for ourselves?
Why is it for every step forward it feels like we’re taking two steps back?
Even the world’s leaders in this day and age lack quality.
Look at the latest bandwagon they all seem to be jumping on.
Biofuel.
The powers-that-be around the globe are pushing for biofuel every chance they get.
But these politicians don’t seem to care that the millions of tons of corn used every year to make this biofuel could feed millions of people in the world’s poorest countries.
Nor do they seem to care that it takes more energy to make biofuel than you actually get out of it.
All they seem to care about is making people believe they’re doing great things, and since most of the world seems to think (wrongly) that biofuel will save the world, they’re pushing biofuel, come Hell or high water, two things I think we’re gonna see before we’re all said and done.
Like C. G. Campbell wrote, “quality isn't something that can be argued into an article or promised into it. It must be put there. If it isn't put there, the finest sales talk in the world won't act as a substitute.”
So don’t except substitutes. Demand quality. If enough people do, sooner or later, the world might just take a turn for the better.
I remember when cars were made of steel, not the recycled pop cans and plastic they build them with today, designed by some bright boy in Detroit to fall apart a year-or-so after you buy one at an inflated price so you can buy another one at an even more inflated price.
Houses used to be made solid and true, by skilled carpenters who knew how to build a home that could last for centuries. Nowadays, a little plywood, a little glue, a nail here and there and a some insulation slapped on and you’ve got a ready-made home-in-a-box ready to be hauled to wherever you want it. Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve got nothing against affordable housing, but it’s hard to get as excited about a prefab house as you’d get by the beautiful, sturdy old houses you’d find along Pleasant Street.
It’s sad, but quality is a rare thing in this day and age.
Just look at food.
Remember when a beautiful roast slow-cooked in the oven was a staple? Nowadays, fast food is a staple. Pour some more ketchup on it, slap some more cheese on it, and add a few more fries to it. That’s a meal nowadays.
But roasts aren’t exactly extinct. No sir.
Now they’ve got instant roasts. Just throw a roast in the microwave and it’s ready to eat in just 10 minutes. Can you believe it? A lot of quality there, no doubt.
Look at good-old-fashioned bacon. They’re even pushing that out the door with microwaveable bacon ready in five seconds.
And obesity is an epidemic and no one knows why. Could it have something to do with all the junk food? Or maybe all the hormones and God knows what else they’re pumping into our tomatoes, into our beef and everything else we grow?
What happened to quality? Was it just another causality of this throwaway society we’ve built for ourselves?
Why is it for every step forward it feels like we’re taking two steps back?
Even the world’s leaders in this day and age lack quality.
Look at the latest bandwagon they all seem to be jumping on.
Biofuel.
The powers-that-be around the globe are pushing for biofuel every chance they get.
But these politicians don’t seem to care that the millions of tons of corn used every year to make this biofuel could feed millions of people in the world’s poorest countries.
Nor do they seem to care that it takes more energy to make biofuel than you actually get out of it.
All they seem to care about is making people believe they’re doing great things, and since most of the world seems to think (wrongly) that biofuel will save the world, they’re pushing biofuel, come Hell or high water, two things I think we’re gonna see before we’re all said and done.
Like C. G. Campbell wrote, “quality isn't something that can be argued into an article or promised into it. It must be put there. If it isn't put there, the finest sales talk in the world won't act as a substitute.”
So don’t except substitutes. Demand quality. If enough people do, sooner or later, the world might just take a turn for the better.
posted by Street Wise Guy | 2:53 AM
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