...products just good enough for their purpose. The aesthetic that-was-not-functionable, the ornamental that was merely traditional, had no place in the American scheme. For Americans, a high quality machine was not one that was polished and ornamental, but one that worked." - Daniel Boorstin The Americans: The Democratic Experience
Make sure it worked and then improve, improve, improve has long been the American way.
Improve. improve, improve was the order of the day until the mid to late 1970's when the bean counters began to take over engineering driven companies. From that point on it has been "cut cost by reducingt component count, cut labor hours and keep it (just barely) functional until 1 day past warranty". hence the modern shit, designed in U.S. (maybe India), built offshore by economies that do not compensate their workers much, thus cementing the old soviet era adage of "they make believe they pay us and we make believe that we work". Still the order of the day. Bring it all back onshore and figure out how to do most of it inside our economy from raw materials all the way to finished goods. We go back to saving more, buying best quality we can save for/afford and taking care of what we own. Proven model for success. Of course our federal government has to be cut down by over 50% along with all the current regulatory environment, entitlements and nullifying/reverting about a half dozen constitutional amendments.
ReplyDeletePerfect example of that is what happened to Boeing when they let the bean counters take over from the engineers that built the company. The quality when to shit and with it the safety and public trust.
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