[I’m 36, and my wife, who is older than me, “hates” that I fix everything. I grew up with a single mother who worked three jobs to keep a head over my brother’s and my head. We mended our own clothes, wore shoes until they fell apart, and fixed our toys when they broke. If we went back to the mentality of resilience and self-sustenance, we might realize savings over the long haul, but Americans are so conditioned to just throw away things that aren’t like new, I doubt we’ll ever see the old days again excepting maybe a severe depression.]
Depression Part 2 is coming. I, too, hate seeing everything thrown out. I’ve already been hit hard by this “economy” which is a whole lot of outsourcing and H1’B stuff. “Hard” is an understatement. People are so used to things going “as normal” that they’re not as prepared for when the music stops.
I wasn’t prepared enough. And when things changed, it changes quickly and you’ve got a lot less power to do something about it. As an aside, you find out real quick, who are your real friends (including family) and who are not.
And somehow the presence of lower quality products blinds consumers to the point where they become incapable of discerning durability. Nobody is forced to shop at Walmart. Nobody is prohibitied from subscribing to Consumer Reports.
I have a $15 digital caliper made in China. For my limited uses I never would have bought a $150 Starret. How many American (union) factory jobs would have been saved by the government preventing me from buying the cheap alternative?
At heart, all protectionist actions enhance union political power. The two are inseparable. You don't have to look for the union label - it's right there in front of your nose.
The most uninformed of the protectionists in this neighborhood claim free trade economists are pointy headed academic theorists - they ignore (or are just too stupid to see) that the economics departments at the academy have more than their fair share of labor union shills.