This makes me angry.  I don't know if its bad abroad, but here, they make things that fall apart easily.  Nothing is meant to last.  Cars fall apart just as soon as you've paid them off.  Teflon coating on pots and pans only lasts a few years.  We bought a DVD player recently that died within a week, we took it back and got the same model, which also promptly died after a few uses.  I don't know how many children's toys I've bought that break or don't work properly soon after being opened. I've got nail pops all over my ceiling and walls from shoddy construction, and my house is only 10 years old!  Argh.  

Plus, we're encouraged to throw something away if it looks "outdated" - whatever that means anyway - and buy it in a new color or style.  

The best is when you buy a phone or other electronic device, and they immediately come out with the next version.  They had the tech the whole time, they're just waiting to make their money off of the last round of tech before they put out the new.  They give it to us in little chunks, so they can make more money.  I get that they have to make money, but it just seems like robbery, like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs when you should just sell us the loaf.  

I don't like to be played like that, it makes me angry.  Maybe its just because it seems like a lot of our things are disintegrating at the moment, but its really starting to bother me.  I take care of my things, I expect them to return the favor by not dying!  Maybe its because I don't like how my kids are buying into it too, throwing things to the side when they get tired of them, or suggesting we just replace perfectly good items.  

I'm having a hard time coming up with ideas to prevent us from becoming victims of planned obsolescence.  Here are the few things I have come up with:

- we need new carpet (whose idea was it to put in cream colored carpet?!), but I'm thinking of saving for wood floor or wood laminate instead because it lasts longer and wears better

- when my keureg finally dies (its been on its last leg for some time now), I'm going to get a french coffee press.  It should last longer, the press and the coffee are cheaper, and it makes good coffee.  

- I'm going to spend a little more and get enamel coated pans that will last longer than my junky teflon ones.  

- I got my van fixed instead of buying a new one, even though its pretty worn out.  I'm going to get every last ounce of life out of it!

Any other ideas?

laminate makes funny sound when you walk on it - I don't like that.
BODUM?
YESSS!
Well, that depends - we bought a new one when we could cut the fuel usage in half.

So true.  I'm tempted to get a sedan, but we travel a great deal and the van is a godsend when kids are picking at each other!  

Mazda makes something called a compact minivan, and Ford is coming out with one in the fall (I think it is a hybrid?).  I might go for something like that.

It is very hard to buy stuff that isn't made in you-know-where now. In real terms most "durable" consumer goods made there cost a fraction of what they did a couple of decades ago, but we get what we pay for. We love having huge screen TVs that only cost a few hundred bucks, but even with the shoddy quality there are manufacturers who are really struggling with over-capacity because we aren't upgrading any more as often as they expected.

German cars seem to last a lot better than most others. But getting parts for older cars is difficult and very expensive.

I've still got my mobile phone, the only one I've ever owned, I got it in the mid-90's.  I will have to give it up soon since you can no longer get that model battery, but I only ever use it for texting to Vernu or Lauren, so it doesn't take much re-charging.  
My car is a Daewoo model from Korea, built in 1996.  Ditto there for parts, since they don't make it or parts anymore.  
Plus I've still got my Katy the Kitten Little Golden Book, with which I taught myself to read, then speak, when I was three years old.  I could never get rid of that!
Alison

This post was last modified: 07-23-2012 11:24 AM by Alison.

I should add, mine was the one that was originally published in 1949, so it's older than me.  I don't know whether or not it was originally my mother's, but it's an heirloom now, I used to read it to Lauren.  It's held up pretty well, having been loved, chewed, read and re-read by so many generations of little girls!  And it's only cheap paper and cardboard, but it means such a lot more than that to me.
Alison

This post was last modified: 07-23-2012 11:31 AM by Alison.

I still hold on to harddrives in the low tens of gigabytes, although I don't do much with them.  Not much to be done, of course.  

I've got adapters for some of my old laptop harddrives, and of course my current (desktop) motherboard has a legacy ide controller.  I've also got an IDE expansion card for the PCI slots, in case the old drives outlive the motherboard (which they probably will, as I can only hook one up at a time; I was supposed to be able to do three, but the adapters are a little broken :'( )

My hubby keesp buying the Calphalon pans ( really expensive) and they do not last much longer than the other kinds. so but the 15 dollar one )green) as seen on tv but available thru amazon or kmart or walgreens etc.,  better than 100 dollars..

One thing though is you are not supposed to put water on the (hot) pan when you are done colling to clean it.. or help slean it - that "voids" any warranties and hastens the decline of the pan... also expensive pans - when I see my hubby "misuse" it (using a fork - though he says he is not scratching it .. I get upset - but feel better if he does it to the "Cheaper" pan.) All the rules for those pans....

Ooops - transposing/typos !

meant to say BUY the cheap ones. (THE GREEN ONE IS GOOD) for that plan the obsolescence. http://www.walmart.com/ip/20575425?adid=...la&veh=sem

Aaaah, forks on pans!!!  Eeek!  DH does that too.  

That's the thing, i need something indestructible, and husband-proof!   

I got a hand-me-down calphalon pan that's in worse shape than my cheap one!  Its a big fry pan that I had intended to keep for a good long while.  Oh well.  

My laptop is about 2.5 years old, and apart from having junk for a battery and a few keys ripped off (thank you middle kiddo...), it still works fine.  I inquired about having the keys fixed, but apparently this type of laptop has weird keys.  DH's tech support guy tried to fix it by figuring out how the keys go on, and ended up breaking another key.  The manufacturer wanted a bundle to fix it, so I use it as-is.  

I don't think Golden Books have changed much!  I have a stack from when i was a kid, the kids love "The Pokey Little Puppy."