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Survivorship bias in effect. Old furniture that lasts decades persists in our memories longer than crappy new furniture that we get rid of quickly. I suspect p

Survivorship bias in effect. Old furniture that lasts decades persists in our memories longer than crappy new furniture that we get rid of quickly. I suspect people who shopped 20, 50, or 100 years ago were also convinced that the quality of furniture was declining.

HideousKojima 3y ago
Furniture manufacturers 50-100 years ago didn't have the option to cheap out in as many ways as they do now. My grandpa was an electrician repairing dishwashers, dryers, and washing machines for most of his career. He started sometime after he left the army, so this was late 40's or early 50's since he was lucky and missed the Korean War, finally fully retired in the early 2000's. The internals on Maytag dishwashers were all metal back then, because plastic wasn't really an option. OEM replacement parts were also way cheaper and easier to obtain back then before a lot of companies realized they could make bank overcharging for parts. There's a massive difference in manufacturing quality and other features for modern furniture and appliances.
kansface 3y ago
100 years ago is harder for me to comment on, but in truth, furniture quality has continually declined. We moved from solid wood to veneered wood dust because it’s easier to manufacture - abstracted trees are perfectly homogeneous vs the real ones. That comes at the cost of being un-repairable. A scratch in solid wood is character (according to Nakashima) while a scratch through veneer breaks the illusion. A water stained veneer (as from a coffee cup) wrecks the entire piece by swelling and popping up the veneer. Even if a piece can be repaired, it’s typically more cost effective to replace. More or less all non-designer (herman miller/knoll) non-craft furniture has been outsourced to IKEA and China which both trade price for quality. The entire American industry was killed, and with it, we lost high quality mid-range furniture. Another way to look at this is that the sq ft per person has increased 50% in the US over the last 50 years. We choose to live in large, shit quality houses and in turn, fill them with loads of shit quality furniture.
natural_intel 3y ago
Quality furniture lasts for generations.

HideousKojima 3y ago

Furniture manufacturers 50-100 years ago didn't have the option to cheap out in as many ways as they do now. My grandpa was an electrician repairing dishwashers, dryers, and washing machines for most of his career. He started sometime after he left the army, so this was late 40's or early 50's since he was lucky and missed the Korean War, finally fully retired in the early 2000's. The internals on Maytag dishwashers were all metal back then, because plastic wasn't really an option. OEM replacement parts were also way cheaper and easier to obtain back then before a lot of companies realized they could make bank overcharging for parts. There's a massive difference in manufacturing quality and other features for modern furniture and appliances.

kansface 3y ago

100 years ago is harder for me to comment on, but in truth, furniture quality has continually declined. We moved from solid wood to veneered wood dust because it’s easier to manufacture - abstracted trees are perfectly homogeneous vs the real ones. That comes at the cost of being un-repairable. A scratch in solid wood is character (according to Nakashima) while a scratch through veneer breaks the illusion. A water stained veneer (as from a coffee cup) wrecks the entire piece by swelling and popping up the veneer. Even if a piece can be repaired, it’s typically more cost effective to replace. More or less all non-designer (herman miller/knoll) non-craft furniture has been outsourced to IKEA and China which both trade price for quality. The entire American industry was killed, and with it, we lost high quality mid-range furniture. Another way to look at this is that the sq ft per person has increased 50% in the US over the last 50 years. We choose to live in large, shit quality houses and in turn, fill them with loads of shit quality furniture.

natural_intel 3y ago

Quality furniture lasts for generations.