I like ZigZaggy's comment below: "...the wealth of the American economy has driven the rest of the world to create a world of low quality goods to sell to us."

I like ZigZaggy's comment below: "...the wealth of the American economy has driven the rest of the world to create a world of low quality goods to sell to us." This comment actually gets at my own curiosity about manufacturing. I start with my experienced in the Restaurant industry. You have some people who open grab and go, and hope only to franchise. You have some young chef who opens in a vacant/former kitchen hoping to make his organic vegan dreams a reality. And a serial entrepreneur of hot spots. All other things being equal, they are competing on location, product quality, and marketing. Near my home is Walmart, Target, Marshalls (second market clothes), Nordstrom Rack (second market for Nordstrom). You can shop at each and, when the fashion stars align, you can find the "same item" (IE. summer cotton beige unlined sport coat) at each location with nearly identical materials & finish, yet each is set at increasingly higher prices (competing on marketing). What's the difference between "Eames" molded fiberglass wire base side chair ($400) and knockoff molded plastic ($80)? Quality of materials. Fit and finish. Quality control (competing on cost of goods, skilled labor, and capital asset/investments) The capital investments increase as you go from restaurant to clothing to furniture (and beyond, ie. auto manufacturing or space rockets). If you look at the cost and investment at the high-end, it stands to reason it would take generations to move a company from creating 'low quality' products to high quality, or you're just happy right were you are (Making Crap since 1929). Or, you step in s#!t, make zillions processing online transactions in finance, then jump into electric auto-manufacturing. haha. It seems so interesting. If you add environmental impact, jobs created, impact on the economy, and even the most boring 4th generation crap manufacturer is dramatic story. On the book, seems the author is talking about another thing entirely--'useless' low quality items--novelty items, souvenirs. I recall reading somewhere about religious pilgrimage circuits in Europe (for hundreds of years) where pilgrims could 'buy' 'souvenirs'. I wonder if you don't necessarily need a wealthy economy. Rather, you need disposable income, and in modern times, low-cost plastics industry, international shipping, and cultures of collecting, plus cultural 'stories' (sports teams, super heroes, music industry, arts, crafts) which give rise to creative expressions of the culture. And why all this 'crap'? Money money money. Jobs jobs jobs. (ie. Halmark created holidays to sell more cards; not wealth, per se, but disposable income).