Posted: 4/30/2011 9:04:33 PM EDT
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Something I have noticed and I think its at the root of the problems in America. Americans no longer demand quality from goods they buy because they don't even understand it anymore.
I was at Lowes in the tool section and someone was comparing jigsaws. A comment was made something to the effect of "Why would someone buy that $250 Bosch jigsaw, it can't be any better than this Skil." The Bosch is a bit more expensive, but its also a fantastic jigsaw. Solidly made, runs like a fine watch and will last forever. Don't get me wrong, for 90% of the weekend wood butchers at Lowes the Skil is just fine and they shouldn't buy the Bosch. But don't lie to yourself. At the gun store I hear "This Nighthawk is nice, but only an idiot would buy it, its no better than Kimber." Now don't get me wrong, I like Kimber, I own a couple, but its no Nighthawk. Its not even about price, compare it to a Dan Wesson of the same cost, one was made to a completely different level of finish. One is high volume production gun, the other is not. Again, Kimber has their place, just like High Point has their place. If I need a cheap gun for home defense I am foolish to not buy a high point. But don't sell me a high point and tell me its as good as a Les Baer. And God help me if I can't tell the difference. I have flown r/c airplanes for years. The entire hobby has changed completely in 10 years. Now the vast majority of people fly airplanes made in China that are 75% or more assembled. It used to be they were 5% assembled, the rest built from tiny sticks. Don't get me wrong, the cheap Chinese planes have their place, but I hear people talk about how nicely they are built. They are poorly constructed. Maybe most guys couldn't build better, but don't kid yourself, shiny on the outside doesn't mean quality on the inside. Guys used to take pride in what they built, how well they built it. Now its just get it cheap and quick. Be it houses, cars, guns, airplanes, you name it, America has lost its ability to understand quality. Our work ethic has been in a slide for years, but we are reaching a new low. If I cannot explain to my son why a Snap-On tool is better than a $1 wrench from Harbor Fright how am I supposed to explain to him the job he does latter in life, what he produces, matters? We are so screwed. 
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Something I have noticed and I think its at the root of the problems in America. Americans no longer demand quality from goods they buy because they don't even understand it anymore. I was at Lowes in the tool section and someone was comparing jigsaws. A comment was made something to the effect of "Why would someone buy that $250 Bosch jigsaw, it can't be any better than this Skil." The Bosch is a bit more expensive, but its also a fantastic jigsaw. Solidly made, runs like a fine watch and will last forever. Don't get me wrong, for 90% of the weekend wood butchers at Lowes the Skil is just fine and they shouldn't buy the Bosch. But don't lie to yourself. At the gun store I hear "This Nighthawk is nice, but only an idiot would buy it, its no better than Kimber." Now don't get me wrong, I like Kimber, I own a couple, but its no Nighthawk. Its not even about price, compare it to a Dan Wesson of the same cost, one was made to a completely different level of finish. One is high volume production gun, the other is not. Again, Kimber has their place, just like High Point has their place. If I need a cheap gun for home defense I am foolish to not buy a high point. But don't sell me a high point and tell me its as good as a Les Baer. And God help me if I can't tell the difference. I have flown r/c airplanes for years. The entire hobby has changed completely in 10 years. Now the vast majority of people fly airplanes made in China that are 75% or more assembled. It used to be they were 5% assembled, the rest built from tiny sticks. Don't get me wrong, the cheap Chinese planes have their place, but I hear people talk about how nicely they are built. They are poorly constructed. Maybe most guys couldn't build better, but don't kid yourself, shiny on the outside doesn't mean quality on the inside. Guys used to take pride in what they built, how well they built it. Now its just get it cheap and quick. Be it houses, cars, guns, airplanes, you name it, America has lost its ability to understand quality. Our work ethic has been in a slide for years, but we are reaching a new low. If I cannot explain to my son why a Snap-On tool is better than a $1 wrench from Harbor Fright how am I supposed to explain to him the job he does latter in life, what he produces, matters? We are so screwed. I think you might be wrong. |
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It's not the lack of recognizing quality that is the source of America's decline.
It's the poor education system. Kids aren't even taught American history and are taught to be selfish. Our government is owned by the multi-national corporations. They give our elected officials the marching orders. We didn't want NAFTA, but the big corporations did and so the politicians gave it to them. We didn't want any of the stimulus bills, but both Dubya and Zero gave it to them. We don't want carbon tax, but we're getting it. We don't want the U.N. to tell the U.S. what to do, but we're getting that too. BTW, the U.N. is also owned by the uber-rich. |
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My beef is with Appliances.. and Gas grills. WHY CAN'T A GUY GET A GRILL THAT LASTS LONGER THAN 1 FUCKING YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Cheap shit. Sad part is, they were made a lot better back in the day, and were cheaper too. Now, we are basically buying disposable items. What is the life span of appliances now... 5, 8, 10 years... Ya don't see 20 years out of a washer/dryer, or freezer now adays. |
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Apple products are made in China by workers who make 68 cents per hour, work 13 hours a day, 7 days a week. When you can enjoy slave labor, you can enjoy huge profits. Substandard quality produced by substandard labor = cheap crap.
There was a day when "made in America" meant it would last forever. Now we ship all our jobs overseas so in return we get shit shipped back to us. |
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It's not the lack of recognizing quality that is the source of America's decline. It's the poor education system. Kids aren't even taught American history and are taught to be selfish. Kids are being taught the quality of their work doesn't matter. Turn in something, anything, and pass. |
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Apple products are made in China by workers who make 68 cents per hour, work 13 hours a day, 7 days a week. When you can enjoy slave labor, you can enjoy huge profits. Substandard quality produced by substandard labor = cheap crap. There was a day when "made in America" meant it would last forever. Now we ship all our jobs overseas so in return we get shit shipped back to us. There is plenty made in America stuff that is just expensive crap. My wife and I were in the market for a car a few years ago and looked around at all of the big names. It was shocking how bad some of the quality was right out of the factory. From piss poor paint jobs to panel lines that were all over the place, I can't believe anyone would spend $60K on some of the junk out there. |
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Quoted: My beef is with Appliances.. and Gas grills. WHY CAN'T A GUY GET A GRILL THAT LASTS LONGER THAN 1 FUCKING YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!! I dunno, but maybe that's on you. I bought a cheap shit grill for $169 and it's three years old now, not a hiccup. Not even rusting. |
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It's the poor education system. Kids aren't even taught American history and are taught to be selfish. I'm gonna have to call BS here. Altruism is pushed at every level of society- government schools more than most places. Kids are taught that things such as "community" "service to others" and "giving back" are the highest values they can achieve. If more people were selfish, we'd have fewer democrats. 
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My beef is with Appliances.. and Gas grills. WHY CAN'T A GUY GET A GRILL THAT LASTS LONGER THAN 1 FUCKING YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheap shit. Sad part is, they were made a lot better back in the day, and were cheaper too. Now, we are basically buying disposable items. What is the life span of appliances now... 5, 8, 10 years... Ya don't see 20 years out of a washer/dryer, or freezer now adays. True. Nothing made these days lasts anymore. On a side note my parents refrigerator is older than I am. I'm 28. 
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It's not the lack of recognizing quality that is the source of America's decline. It's the poor education system. Kids aren't even taught American history and are taught to be selfish. Our government is owned by the multi-national corporations. They give our elected officials the marching orders. We didn't want NAFTA, but the big corporations did and so the politicians gave it to them. We didn't want any of the stimulus bills, but both Dubya and Zero gave it to them. We don't want carbon tax, but we're getting it. We don't want the U.N. to tell the U.S. what to do, but we're getting that too. BTW, the U.N. is also owned by the uber-rich. Are you serious??? I can't think of anyplace where a kid can graduate high school without taking two US history classes (1 in high school, 1 in middle school). Most elementary social studies education is based off US/local/American-regional history/geography/culture. Explain where you are going with this one. |
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The only Skil tools I own are Model 77 Skil-saws... I always looked at them like they were top of the line. Are the rest of them junk? Old Skil or new Skil? I have some old Skil stuff that's great, I haven't looked but the newer stuff is not the same. Walmart sells it for "DIYers". |
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I think it depends on the use of the tool...
A homeowner buys a drill press, if it only lasts him 30 hours of use before breaking, it may last him the rest of his life. Put it in service in a machine shop, it would be broken in 3 days or less. Inexpensive tools have their place, as do top-quality ones. |
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Quoted: My beef is with Appliances.. and Gas grills. WHY CAN'T A GUY GET A GRILL THAT LASTS LONGER THAN 1 FUCKING YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!! Because you bought a cheap grill instead of a Weber  Cheap shit. Sad part is, they were made a lot better back in the day, and were cheaper too. Now, we are basically buying disposable items. What is the life span of appliances now... 5, 8, 10 years... Ya don't see 20 years out of a washer/dryer, or freezer now adays. My washer and dryer are 21 years old |
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I go out of my way to buy quality, I do a lot of research online, mostly from amazon.com reviews and epinions. Things don't last as long as they used to because people just don't take care of stuff any more. Ask you neighbor the last time they changed the oil or spark plug in their lawnmower, or sharpened the blade. They'll look at you like you're stupid or something. I got 19 years out of my last lawnmower, it was a $99 Murray from Lowes |
I think the root of the problem is people were taught to believe that anything new is somehow better than anything and everything which is older or used. They think they always have to have the newest electronics. The newest cars. The newest houses. The newest stuff. The newest fashion. Its blown my mind over the years how many people want to throw away things which work perfectly just because they think if they buy something new which is more or less exactly the same it'll be better. Then they wonder why the new things they buy break or stop working well within in a short amount of time.  I used to work for a guy who was like that. He and his incompetent regional manager would go around throwing away tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. Then they'd purchase hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stuff to replace everything they got rid of. Then they'd always wonder why all their new fancy equipment was failing and breaking down all the time. It's as if they had the inability to understand that new things are not better or perfect or more reliable. They didn't understand that whole concept of if it ain't broke, don't fix it. They just knew that buying new was somehow better. 
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My parent's washing machine is a 20 year old Kenmore. It's got three knobs on it, one for cycle, one for load size, and one for water temperature, and it washes clothes just fine. The only gripe is that the rubber bumpers on the lid have worn out and fallen off years ago, and where the paint is gone it is rusting. I think this is because my brother slams the damn lid loud enough for everyone in the house to hear it.
The inlaws bought a new washer three years ago with touch-screen LCD displays, something like 40 different modes, all the fancy shit. The LCD display has been replaced twice under warranty, (who would have guessed that cheap chinese electronics wouldn't hold up well to moisture and detergents?) and broke and flooded their house a month ago, so they went out and bought an even fancier one. 
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It's not the lack of recognizing quality that is the source of America's decline. It's the poor education system. Kids aren't even taught American history and are taught to be selfish. Kids are being taught the quality of their work doesn't matter. Turn in something, anything, and pass. That is far from reality in most envioronments. Major assessments (tests, quizzes, writing assignments, projects) are always graded based on quality (per grading rationale devised to meet content and skill objectives). Small things, e.g. homework/ classwork) might be scored based on completion, but those tend to be a relatively small part of the overall grade (I know that this varies between dsitrcits and teachers). My observation, which is limited, is that the kids who don't do HW/CW are the same ones who WILL NOT be paying attention in class, WILL NOT benefit from learning activities, and WILL still score poorly on major assessments and WILL get poor overall grades even if they get a few "free points." I typically do grade mosr homework/ classwork based on completion (with certain classes, I (have) use(d) a cross bw completion and correctness). The thinking is that HW/ CW is meant to be a learning exercise. I DO use student answers to assess what students DO and DON'T know to shape instruction and to assess what they are getting out of what I teach. I do give corrective comments and feedback as well. They get the benefit of not feeling as though they are being knocked down for making an effort that might not be working yet (that can be very demoralizing to weak students....and actually cause them to get even less benefit from the class). There is a trend toward standards based grading in quite a few school districts. If strands are assessed properly, students markes WILL reflect performance rather than points for effort (even though many who promote the idea like the fact that it theoretically removes the "failing grade.") Getting completion points only really goes to strands/ standards that reflect responsibility, behavior, etc....which can have some value. |
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So, you don't like Harbor Freight? I like em plenty. They have some junk, but some real good stuff too. I buy lots of files from there. I own tools from them. Often there is a tool I know I only need so often, its not really important, so I go buy the cheap one from them. But I never lie to myself and think its as good as something else. My point is most people can't even tell the different anymore. |
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It's not the lack of recognizing quality that is the source of America's decline. It's the poor education system. Kids aren't even taught American history and are taught to be selfish. Kids are being taught the quality of their work doesn't matter. Turn in something, anything, and pass. That is far from reality in most envioronments. Major assessments (tests, quizzes, writing assignments, projects) are always graded based on quality (per grading rationale devised to meet content and skill objectives). Small things, e.g. homework/ classwork) might be scored based on completion, but those tend to be a relatively small part of the overall grade (I know that this varies between dsitrcits and teachers). My observation, which is limited, is that the kids who don't do HW/CW are the same ones who WILL NOT be paying attention in class, WILL NOT benefit from learning activities, and WILL still score poorly on major assessments and WILL get poor overall grades even if they get a few "free points." I typically do grade mosr homework/ classwork based on completion (with certain classes, I (have) use(d) a cross bw completion and correctness). The thinking is that HW/ CW is meant to be a learning exercise. I DO use student answers to assess what students DO and DON'T know to shape instruction and to assess what they are getting out of what I teach. I do give corrective comments and feedback as well. They get the benefit of not feeling as though they are being knocked down for making an effort that might not be working yet (that can be very demoralizing to weak students....and actually cause them to get even less benefit from the class). There is a trend toward standards based grading in quite a few school districts. If strands are assessed properly, students markes WILL reflect performance rather than points for effort (even though many who promote the idea like the fact that it theoretically removes the "failing grade.") Getting completion points only really goes to strands/ standards that reflect responsibility, behavior, etc....which can have some value. My wife is a teacher as are many of her friends. The public school system is steadily moving away from emphasis on the quality individual student work to "as long as you tried we will give you a passing grade". Public school is now taught to the lowest common denominator. |
| The OP made me think of the cheap sawdust made furniture that is glued together with stickers on the outside that resemble wood grain. Not only is that all you can get at Wal-Mart but these days it is hard to find anything else even in a real furniture store. I am to the point I think a nice laminate wood piece of furniture is quality as long as it isn't that sawdust shit. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: So, you don't like Harbor Freight? I like em plenty. They have some junk, but some real good stuff too. I buy lots of files from there. I own tools from them. Often there is a tool I know I only need so often, its not really important, so I go buy the cheap one from them. But I never lie to myself and think its as good as something else. My point is most people can't even tell the different anymore. I don't lie to myself either, but I've used that $3 set of 30 some security bits exactly once, and it worked great. People with brains know the difference. There are people posting here everyday for advice on the best this or that to buy. If people didn't care, then Amazon, Newegg, and so many others wouldn't have an area dedicated to reviews. There wouldn't be a Consumer Reports magazine, and so on. |
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My beef is with Appliances.. and Gas grills. WHY CAN'T A GUY GET A GRILL THAT LASTS LONGER THAN 1 FUCKING YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheap shit. Sad part is, they were made a lot better back in the day, and were cheaper too. Now, we are basically buying disposable items. What is the life span of appliances now... 5, 8, 10 years... Ya don't see 20 years out of a washer/dryer, or freezer now adays. I hear ya, seems like we have to buy a new BBQ every couple of years, our toaster was a wedding gift my mom and dad received, it's 51 now and still makes perfect toast. |
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I have flown r/c airplanes for years. The entire hobby has changed completely in 10 years. Now the vast majority of people fly airplanes made in China that are 75% or more assembled. It used to be they were 5% assembled, the rest built from tiny sticks. The last ARF plane I paid for was in 1987... A Cox Cessna 182 Skylane. I agree, It is sad. On the other hand, when I goto the field, Im am " The guy that builds his own planes". And when some noob dorks his plane in now, they dont know how to fix them. I have pulled good planes out of the trash because they dorked up a wing , tore some monocoat....
I still fly my 72 Mhz radios also. 
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If I cannot explain to my son why a Snap-On tool is better than a $1 wrench from Harbor Fright how am I supposed to explain to him the job he does latter in life, what he produces, matters? They do both have the same Lifetime Warranty, so screw it, and buy the cheaper of the two
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The OP made me think of the cheap sawdust made furniture that is glued together with stickers on the outside that resemble wood grain. Not only is that all you can get at Wal-Mart but these days it is hard to find anything else even in a real furniture store. I am to the point I think a nice laminate wood piece of furniture is quality as long as it isn't that sawdust shit. Funny story about that. Just the other day, the wife was looking at furniture on Pottery Barn's website. She was showing me a set she liked, $1700 for just the dresser. Now, the little lady was only dreaming, as that shit is just plain out of our price range... but I took a closer look and clicked over the tab that gives you the sales pitch and looked at the specifications. This $1700 dresser was made of MDF, Medium Density Fiberboard, with a veneer. One thousand, seven hundred dollars, for a piece of fucking shit made out of sawdust and glue that is going to leech formaldehyde for decades. They don't tell you where it was made, but the simple fact that they don't makes me 100% certain that it's made in China and the actual product probably only costs $100 or less to produce. It's shipped to you flat packed, and assembled by their people in your home, probably for $9 an hour. I told her that for the price of one of their sets, we could either buy real antiques that were handcrafted out of quality walnut or mahogany with cedar linings, or we could buy me an entire wood shop and the lumber necessary for me to lovingly hand-craft each and every piece to her exact specifications. |
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People no longer demand quality because due to credit availability, EVERYTHING is disposable today. People can have anything they want, any time they want (except equity of course), and when something breaks, or doesnt work effectively enough.....they just go get something else.
In 'olden times' (you know...when our dads were our age) people didnt have the option of buying whatever crap got them by that day...people planned ahead and got the right tool for the job...and they made it last. Want to see 'quality' make a comeback? Cut up every credit card in America. People will go back to buying functional, effective things....once...and preserve them. |
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It's not the lack of recognizing quality that is the source of America's decline. It's the poor education system. Kids aren't even taught American history and are taught to be selfish. Our government is owned by the multi-national corporations. They give our elected officials the marching orders. We didn't want NAFTA, but the big corporations did and so the politicians gave it to them. We didn't want any of the stimulus bills, but both Dubya and Zero gave it to them. We don't want carbon tax, but we're getting it. We don't want the U.N. to tell the U.S. what to do, but we're getting that too. BTW, the U.N. is also owned by the uber-rich. Are you serious??? I can't think of anyplace where a kid can graduate high school without taking two US history classes (1 in high school, 1 in middle school). Most elementary social studies education is based off US/local/American-regional history/geography/culture. Explain where you are going with this one. The history they are taught now is how Whitey tortured and killed everyone that got in the way. This not all together untrue. However, to quote - Elaine Miles as Marilyn Whirlwind, Northern Exposure, ,"It's the same with white people. They cleared the forest, they dug up the land, and they gave us the flu. But they also brought power tools and penicillin and Ben and Jerry's ice cream." - Elaine Miles as Marilyn Whirlwind, Northern Exposure The good stuff Westerners have done is being left out. Jim |
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I have flown r/c airplanes for years. The entire hobby has changed completely in 10 years. Now the vast majority of people fly airplanes made in China that are 75% or more assembled. It used to be they were 5% assembled, the rest built from tiny sticks. The last ARF plane I paid for was in 1987... A Cox Cessna 182 Skylane. I agree, It is sad. On the other hand, when I goto the field, Im am " The guy that builds his own planes". And when some noob dorks his plane in now, they dont know how to fix them. I have pulled good planes out of the trash because they dorked up a wing , tore some monocoat....
I still fly my 72 Mhz radios also. In some ways ARFs have made modeling possible for the masses, in other ways it has completely destroyed it. One of the local hobby shops recently was going out of business. They had kits at 75% off and still couldn't get rid of them. Now I have a whole room full of kits I may or may not need. If you know of anyone looking for an F-86 kit lemme know, I have two I don't need.
The downside is now there are a lot of people that are no longer modelers, there are just people who fly on the weekends. Before someone says "Oh well" they should consider someone like Burt Rutan, that man has done more for aviation that pretty much anyone and he started out with"toy airplanes". |
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The OP made me think of the cheap sawdust made furniture that is glued together with stickers on the outside that resemble wood grain. Not only is that all you can get at Wal-Mart but these days it is hard to find anything else even in a real furniture store. I am to the point I think a nice laminate wood piece of furniture is quality as long as it isn't that sawdust shit. Funny story about that. Just the other day, the wife was looking at furniture on Pottery Barn's website. She was showing me a set she liked, $1700 for just the dresser. Now, the little lady was only dreaming, as that shit is just plain out of our price range... but I took a closer look and clicked over the tab that gives you the sales pitch and looked at the specifications. This $1700 dresser was made of MDF, Medium Density Fiberboard, with a veneer. One thousand, seven hundred dollars, for a piece of fucking shit made out of sawdust and glue that is going to leech formaldehyde for decades. They don't tell you where it was made, but the simple fact that they don't makes me 100% certain that it's made in China and the actual product probably only costs $100 or less to produce. It's shipped to you flat packed, and assembled by their people in your home, probably for $9 an hour. I told her that for the price of one of their sets, we could either buy real antiques that were handcrafted out of quality walnut or mahogany with cedar linings, or we could buy me an entire wood shop and the lumber necessary for me to lovingly hand-craft each and every piece to her exact specifications. If you want some Saturday afternoon entertainment go to a furniture store. Pull out a drawer from pretty much anything and turn it upside down. The salesman will shit a brick, the manager will faint. Its cardboard held together by staples and hot glue. |
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I was at Lowes in the tool section and someone was comparing jigsaws. A comment was made something to the effect of "Why would someone buy that $250 Bosch jigsaw, it can't be any better than this Skil." The Bosch is a bit more expensive, but its also a fantastic jigsaw. Solidly made, runs like a fine watch and will last forever. Don't get me wrong, for 90% of the weekend wood butchers at Lowes the Skil is just fine and they shouldn't buy the Bosch. But don't lie to yourself. bosch jigsaws do not cost $250. ar-jedi 
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It's not the lack of recognizing quality that is the source of America's decline. It's the poor education system. Kids aren't even taught American history and are taught to be selfish. Kids are being taught the quality of their work doesn't matter. Turn in something, anything, and pass. That is far from reality in most envioronments. Major assessments (tests, quizzes, writing assignments, projects) are always graded based on quality (per grading rationale devised to meet content and skill objectives). Small things, e.g. homework/ classwork) might be scored based on completion, but those tend to be a relatively small part of the overall grade (I know that this varies between dsitrcits and teachers). My observation, which is limited, is that the kids who don't do HW/CW are the same ones who WILL NOT be paying attention in class, WILL NOT benefit from learning activities, and WILL still score poorly on major assessments and WILL get poor overall grades even if they get a few "free points." I typically do grade mosr homework/ classwork based on completion (with certain classes, I (have) use(d) a cross bw completion and correctness). The thinking is that HW/ CW is meant to be a learning exercise. I DO use student answers to assess what students DO and DON'T know to shape instruction and to assess what they are getting out of what I teach. I do give corrective comments and feedback as well. They get the benefit of not feeling as though they are being knocked down for making an effort that might not be working yet (that can be very demoralizing to weak students....and actually cause them to get even less benefit from the class). There is a trend toward standards based grading in quite a few school districts. If strands are assessed properly, students markes WILL reflect performance rather than points for effort (even though many who promote the idea like the fact that it theoretically removes the "failing grade.") Getting completion points only really goes to strands/ standards that reflect responsibility, behavior, etc....which can have some value. My wife is a teacher as are many of her friends. The public school system is steadily moving away from emphasis on the quality individual student work to "as long as you tried we will give you a passing grade". Public school is now taught to the lowest common denominator. You're right. In low level classes, lower level content is taught, alomst to a lowest common denominator level. However, the material that is taught is (in theory) used to achieve certain designed ends. Doing that well is the heart of differentiation which is a very important teaching skill. I have given plenty of failing grades and low passing grades, in the short time that I have been in the classroom. Every one of them was earned. Boosting grades would be as inappropriate as docking points (for no reason). I'm not saying that it doesn't happen. I am saying that I don't engage in that practice. While some teachers might claim they feel pressured to do that, the feel that I get is that it more of an individua/ personal weakness than the result of systemic pressure (in most cases, I believe that is an excuse). I believe that it links back to two factors (1) teachers tasked with teaching low sections, or in environments with lots of apathetic/low-performing/resistant students get demoralized by who/ what they have to work with every day and go through the motions figuring that what'll happen will happen, and/or that (2) the teacher has a legit care/ concern for the kids and believes that boosting their grades is in their best interest (I will admit that this is me w/ some mgmnt functions, aside from grading). |
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Regarding grills, my Weber gas grill has been outside uncovered (aside from a roof overhang *sometimes*) for nine years. I noticed the finish and plastic parts are showing a little weathering, and the ignitor is a little sticky. Other than that, it works 100% like new. |
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The OP made me think of the cheap sawdust made furniture that is glued together with stickers on the outside that resemble wood grain. Not only is that all you can get at Wal-Mart but these days it is hard to find anything else even in a real furniture store. I am to the point I think a nice laminate wood piece of furniture is quality as long as it isn't that sawdust shit. Funny story about that. Just the other day, the wife was looking at furniture on Pottery Barn's website. She was showing me a set she liked, $1700 for just the dresser. Now, the little lady was only dreaming, as that shit is just plain out of our price range... but I took a closer look and clicked over the tab that gives you the sales pitch and looked at the specifications. This $1700 dresser was made of MDF, Medium Density Fiberboard, with a veneer. One thousand, seven hundred dollars, for a piece of fucking shit made out of sawdust and glue that is going to leech formaldehyde for decades. They don't tell you where it was made, but the simple fact that they don't makes me 100% certain that it's made in China and the actual product probably only costs $100 or less to produce. It's shipped to you flat packed, and assembled by their people in your home, probably for $9 an hour. I told her that for the price of one of their sets, we could either buy real antiques that were handcrafted out of quality walnut or mahogany with cedar linings, or we could buy me an entire wood shop and the lumber necessary for me to lovingly hand-craft each and every piece to her exact specifications. If you want some Saturday afternoon entertainment go to a furniture store. Pull out a drawer from pretty much anything and turn it upside down. The salesman will shit a brick, the manager will faint. Its cardboard held together by staples and hot glue. I may have to do that, just to see if you're right. 
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It's not the lack of recognizing quality that is the source of America's decline. It's the poor education system. Kids aren't even taught American history and are taught to be selfish. Our government is owned by the multi-national corporations. They give our elected officials the marching orders. We didn't want NAFTA, but the big corporations did and so the politicians gave it to them. We didn't want any of the stimulus bills, but both Dubya and Zero gave it to them. We don't want carbon tax, but we're getting it. We don't want the U.N. to tell the U.S. what to do, but we're getting that too. BTW, the U.N. is also owned by the uber-rich. Are you serious??? I can't think of anyplace where a kid can graduate high school without taking two US history classes (1 in high school, 1 in middle school). Most elementary social studies education is based off US/local/American-regional history/geography/culture. Explain where you are going with this one. The history they are taught now is how Whitey tortured and killed everyone that got in the way. This not all together untrue. However, to quote - Elaine Miles as Marilyn Whirlwind, Northern Exposure, ,"It's the same with white people. They cleared the forest, they dug up the land, and they gave us the flu. But they also brought power tools and penicillin and Ben and Jerry's ice cream." - Elaine Miles as Marilyn Whirlwind, Northern Exposure The good stuff Westerners have done is being left out. Jim I can guarantee you that positive western achievments are more than adequately taught at the secondary level. Some teachers do, individually, interject value judgements or choose to omit things that they shouldn't. I like giving position based/interpretive writing assignments (in which students substantiate their judgement/ position with specifics that they learned). I believe that when I am doing my job, there will be a healthy array of positions. |
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I was at Lowes in the tool section and someone was comparing jigsaws. A comment was made something to the effect of "Why would someone buy that $250 Bosch jigsaw, it can't be any better than this Skil." The Bosch is a bit more expensive, but its also a fantastic jigsaw. Solidly made, runs like a fine watch and will last forever. Don't get me wrong, for 90% of the weekend wood butchers at Lowes the Skil is just fine and they shouldn't buy the Bosch. But don't lie to yourself. bosch jigsaws do not cost $250. ar-jedi http://wopr.losdos.dyndns.org/gallery2/d/25368-1/DSCN6361.JPG Some do. And its worth every penny. I learned on a barrel grip AEG, the handle type screw me up. http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-1591EVSK-Barrel-Grip-Jigsaw/dp/B00067J3WS/ref=sr_1_8?s=power-hand-tools&ie=UTF8&qid=1304233320&sr=1-8 |