There was a documentary a while ago about the building of the QE2 in Scotland in the mid 60s. One of the former trade union leaders interviewed remarked that in

There was a documentary a while ago about the building of the QE2 in Scotland in the mid 60s. One of the former trade union leaders interviewed remarked that in hindsight the giveaway that things for the UK shipbuilding industry was going to go badly was they were using equipment built in 1905. We see this stuff all the time across the world. The short term risk of upgrading can be an awful lot more than financial. Vested local interests can often cause all sorts of problems. Especially if your investment in new equipment leads to you essentially trying to compete on highlighting local environmental and labour abuses. Combine that with humanity's natural "it's been good so far, why wouldn't it continue?" inclination...