Parable of the Sofa
tbray.org
Parable of the Sofa
1–10 of 357 posts
Re: Parable of the Sofa
#2>Sofas made in the past 15 years or so are absolute garbage, constructed of sawdust compressed and bonded with cheap glue, simple brackets in place of proper joinery, substandard spring design, flimsy foam, and a lot of staples.
Interesting, I didn't know it's the case everywhere, not only in my country. Several beds/sofas we bought in the last 5-10 years had such poor quality they cracked in multiple places already and had to be fixed or replaced. Meanwhile a bed produced in 1970 changed 3 owners and still was in perfect condition when we replaced it (for the only reason of looking "oudated", which I regret now).
Re: Parable of the Sofa
#3> Late Capitalism: Check check fucking check.
I think the author would stop blaming capitalism after seeing the atrocious sofas of the late socialist Soviet Union, which wete not only worse than anything, but also the only choice.
Re: Parable of the Sofa
#4> Late Capitalism: Check check fucking check. I think the author would stop blaming capitalism after seeing the atrocious sofas of the late socialist Soviet Union, which wete not only worse than anything, but also the only choice.
It's easy to criticize his conclusion when you leave out all the evidence for said conclusion:
> But the subtext is drearily familiar. Globalization: Check. Cheap-labor arbitrage: Check. Tax engineering: Check. High profits: Check. Flat-packing: Check.
Do you deny that any or all of this is happening, today, under capitalism? Do you deny that there are incentives for any or all of this under capitalism today? Do you deny that these things would lead to the inevitable quality decline he's lamenting? Let's not have any more of your straw man attacks. Attack the real issue instead.
Re: Parable of the Sofa
#5> Late Capitalism: Check check fucking check. I think the author would stop blaming capitalism after seeing the atrocious sofas of the late socialist Soviet Union, which wete not only worse than anything, but also the only choice.
That's correct, the only two conceivable possibilities are "everything exactly the way it currently is" and "everything exactly the way it was in Soviet Russia".
Re: Parable of the Sofa
#6> Late Capitalism: Check check fucking check. I think the author would stop blaming capitalism after seeing the atrocious sofas of the late socialist Soviet Union, which wete not only worse than anything, but also the only choice.
The world is not binary.
Re: Parable of the Sofa
#7> Late Capitalism: Check check fucking check. I think the author would stop blaming capitalism after seeing the atrocious sofas of the late socialist Soviet Union, which wete not only worse than anything, but also the only choice.
I imagine that is why he called out "late capitalism" rather than "capitalism".
Re: Parable of the Sofa
#8>Sofas made in the past 15 years or so are absolute garbage, constructed of sawdust compressed and bonded with cheap glue, simple brackets in place of proper joinery, substandard spring design, flimsy foam, and a lot of staples. Interesting, I didn't know it's the case everywhere, not only in my country. Several beds/sofas we bought in the last 5-10 years had such poor quality they cracked in multiple places already…
High quality furniture is still being made and sold, just not for $300 for a couch.
Cheap shit is going to be cheap shit.
Growing up, furniture was something that was expensive, carefully shopped for, and hand delivered fully assembled. I see the availability of cheap (to make and to transport) furniture as filling a gap in the market previously not addressed, but if you’re in a position to buy a piece you’d like to keep 15 years, maybe IKEA and Wayfair aren’t the right furniture vendor for you. High quality furniture wasn’t an inflation-adjusted $300/couch back then either.
Re: Parable of the Sofa
#9> Late Capitalism: Check check fucking check. I think the author would stop blaming capitalism after seeing the atrocious sofas of the late socialist Soviet Union, which wete not only worse than anything, but also the only choice.
This is just whataboutism. Maybe you don’t know this but there are many alternatives to both neo-capitalism and authoritarianism.
Tim is not blaming capitalism. Without wanting to put words in his mouth, I think he’s blaming unfettered capitalism and its winner-take-all bullshit where the majority of the participants in the economy fail to benefit from it.
My next business will - very intentionally - be a lifestyle business, but it’s been really hard to find a niche where I can build a quality moat against massive players. The odds are stacked against us smaller players because of an accumulation of capital which is unnecessary and less efficient than alternatives.
You can blather on all you like about capitalism being better than communism but the kind of capitalism we’re getting is no better for us than the kind of communism we’ve fought against.
To quote someone on HN some years ago - I apologise that I didn’t keep the URL - “The US government's democracy is at most the same as the Soviet Union's communism, merely something to cover the way that those in power divide the loot.”
Re: Parable of the Sofa
#10> Late Capitalism: Check check fucking check. I think the author would stop blaming capitalism after seeing the atrocious sofas of the late socialist Soviet Union, which wete not only worse than anything, but also the only choice.
Doesn't remove the fact that we had good sofas 40 years ago.
Perhaps capitalism is only good while it's kept in check by the menace of communism.