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The quality of everything has gone to pot and, of course, that fact does not show up in the inflation numbers in any meaningful way. I purchased a dresser from
by recursivedoubts 1y ago
The quality of everything has gone to pot and, of course, that fact does not show up in the inflation numbers in any meaningful way.
I purchased a dresser from Restoration Hardware back in 2001 as a recent grad and it's quality is unbelievable by todays standards: dovetail joinery, excellent wood, etc. Now I go and look at furniture and I'd have to spend (what I consider to be, lol) a car's worth of money for anything close to it.
- eszed 1y agoI will only buy "antique" furniture, for precisely this reason. When we were looking for a house, I prioritized homes built before 1933 (when asbestos materials became widely used). We bought a house built in 1929, and the materials and workmanship are phenomenally good. It wasn't like a custom build or anything, either: the surrounding three blocks were built at the same time by the same developer, and they were originally owned by working-class families. It's just, as you say, everything has got worse.
- npoc 1y agoIf you're interested in knowing why, the reason for this is century-long expansion of the money supply at an average of ~7% year. This halves the value of the dollar every decade and assuming you get an average payrise of 2%/year, means you've been getting an average paycut of 5% every year. This would mean that you couldn't afford anything, except for the fact that the value of consumables (food, toothbrush, books etc.) goes down by around 5% a year due to the constant reduction in human time required to create them, due to technology advancements. Unfortunately those technology advancements haven't been made to high-quality furniture, which is likely still mainly hand-made.