Quality

Is it just me.....or has quality become a thing of the past? I was doing a small repair job on some steps in the yard....reinforced slabs on concrete foundation blocks. These steps were constructed about 20 years ago and the blocks are practically turning to powder. Now considering that Roman structures made of concrete are still standing after 2000 years....I can't help but be a little disappointed in the lifespan of today's concrete. Look at the concrete roads you are driving on too....they don't last much longer either.

So I get to thinking and realize that quality just doesn't matter in this throw-away world. Cheap appliances are designed to break....food has no taste except for huge ammount of salt and other additives they put in it....metal replaced by plastic or resin everywhere......forced grown wood products that warp immediately.....


Cheap....cheap...cheap......
Fast......fast.....fast.....
Money....money....money....... :rolleyes:

Even if you are willing to pay a higher price for something.....you still don't get quality anymore. :(

Seems to me that sooner or later you push the quality level down so far.....that it becomes unusable for the purpose it was designed for, and I think many items are getting close. Then what.....?

Competence has become a thing of the past. I've found disturbing examples of this in so many areas that I can't list 'em.

Oh yeah....I forgot about competence too...

Everyone wants a paycheck just for showing up for "work".....regardless of whether they actually do anything right. :rolleyes:

I could tell some horror stories about the construction business I'm in....but you never know who is reading. ;)

Suffice to say....you would think twice about going into some buildings..... :eek:

I agree...it seems that so much stuff...and even people in general ( uh..oh...gone to meddling!!)...is (are)...seeking the lowest common denominator...

There is still quality "out there"..but it's not easy to find...and quite often it is found in un-likely places. It's not always the name-brand stuff that is good quality...those name brands have made tons of money already so "they" don't need to continue putting out high quality stuff ( Always exceptions to this...just talking in generalities here).
I have seen and know of lesser known brands that are just as good...and sometimes better...than the name brand.

Maybe this is just the natural order of things....from order to dis-order....from high class to low class.

The same with people....money doesn't make a person a good person...if you give a jerk a million dollars you will have...a jerk with a million dollars...!!

If you take a quality person and take away everything from that person...you will still have a quality person...undoubtedly not as happy as before, but still at the core...a good person...

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Originally Posted by maxx

Everyone wants a paycheck just for showing up for "work"

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That's if they show up for work at all..... the work ethic of today's generation is horrid.

Again.... quality in general is at an all time low on so many levels.

I couldn't agree more with all the comments.

The 'Striving for Excellence' feelings of the past century seem to have given way to "Striving for Completion", and all in the name of the almighty $......and you know what is said "Time is Money".
So quality is sacrificed...:mad:
It's really a shame.

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Originally Posted by maxx
Everyone wants a paycheck just for showing up for "work"

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During my working years as a supervisor I had one employee who was showing up for work on an average 4 days a week. I finally asked him why he was only working 4 days a week. His answer was " well, I just can't get by on 3" ? It took a while, but I was finally able to get rid of him.

We seem to have entered a world of "good enough".......where minimum standards are the goal now, instead of something that needs to be surpassed. Sure....striving for perfection is waste of time and money, but what happened to a 'good job'. Not perfect.....but not minimum either.... :confused:

I'm sure that every generation says the same thing....since boosting profit has been around since the concept of money itself. But I honestly feel that today is different. We are finally reaching the end of the line and there just is no more squeeze room left. Product failure percentages will start to rise drastically, I think.

Remember the old Bell telephones....with the dial on them? I still have one in a storage box somewhere. It still works after 35 years. I have bought at least a dozen telephones in that time and all have failed at some point, and they have very few moving parts compared to the old ones. My system is touch-tone now, so I can't use the old Bell...otherwise I just might dust it off. ;)

ya know that brings up a good point..... new technology is not always better

We still have my mom and dads old black rotary telephone in storage somewhere ..... never quit working .... I have been through dozens of cordless over the years.

Went to what supposedly was a high-class "quality" furniture store not too long ago. Oh yes....it all looked quite fancy (and was quite expensive), but take a closer look and you could see a heck of a lot of thin plywood and cheap presswood....joints not put together right.....places where they obviously decided not to stain correctly because they were in a hurry to get the product out. Here they were selling the stuff as "high-quality workmanship", yet upon closer inspection it was obviously done by a crew of chimpanzees.

Seeing more and more of this.....we live in a throw-away society I'm afraid. Nothing being made to last.

Im ashamed to admit it, but in my early 20s I was that type of worker. I worked in sheet metal just before I went into music fulltime, and I never showed up on monday. The boss didn't fire me because he had another worker who worked the same machine, and did the bulk work, and anything that was difficult or was over that fellow's capability, would be waiting for me on my bench whenever I showed up.

I have quite a different work ethic today. Diametrically opposed, I'd say.

Yeah JP .... you don't even stay away on your vacation :p

Here's another pet peeve of mine in this discussion........the quality of produce. Today, vegetables and fruits have been genetically modified or hybridized for longer shelf life and appearance. The cost is taste. You buy a beautiful apple (waxed of course :rolleyes: ), bite into it....and it's tasteless mush. Tomatoes are pink now, oranges are yellow (carefully packaged in orange tinted sacks)....bananas are green.

What's funny is that when I talk to someone much younger than me...they don't know what I am talking about because they never tasted good produce. But if I talk with someone older...they know exactly what I am saying.

Grow your own, you say? Bzzzt....sorry, wrong answer. It is next to impossible to get hierloom varieties now for many crops. The plants and seeds you buy at the store are the very same modified hybrids. You have to go to catalogs or the net to have a shot...then hope they survive the shipping.

I haven't had a good apple in 15 years...... :(

I had a green pepper the other day ...... and it was crunchy and juicy ...... but no flavor!

It's pretty sad.... I'm the same age as you so I know just what you are talking about.....

I have yet to have a good watermelon over the past few summers.... I can remember that refreshing watermelon taste.... now they pale in comparison of flavor :(

Yeah....what's up with the melons..... :confused:

You can't even buy the old fashioned seeded kind up north here. They were big and red inside. Now all they sell is the seedless (not really seedless, BTW) little ones.....that are pink inside. :confused:






(Now everyone behave themselves on the "pink inside" comment.....) ;)