Generation Junk

Totally irrelevant links — the assertion was about hybrid cars, those links speak to cars overall.

The Toyota Prius debuted in the US in 2000. I’d argue 23 years is simply not sufficient to make an argument about long term reliability—particularly given that sales took a while to ramp, and any issues in, say, the first 10 years are likely to be dismissed as teething problems.

> I can’t say the same about my coffee grinders. I use the plural because I’ve owned a lot of them, all bought in their original packaging and dead within a year. They’re good ones, supposedly, with burrs not blades, but they stop performing before long, ending their long journeys from overseas factories in unmarked graves in my local Montana landfill.

I purchased a Capresso Infinity Conical Burr Grinder from Amazon.com on Aug 21, 2020 for $157.94 and have used it, at a minimum, once per day every day I have woken up at home for three years (at least 1,000 times) and it shows no signs of slowing down.

If my definition of "a lot" correct and is "greater than three" then the author might want to have his or her wiring checked.

Also, as far as staples go, premium staples that can fasten (practically) paper to sheet metal are $0.20 more per 1,000-count than garbage staples. Buy the premium staples that come in a plastic box with a hinged lid instead of the cardboard bricks of staples and you'll never have a jam again.

> The two or three new pens I use each week that, because no ink comes out of them

Ok this is just ridiculous.

TWO TO THREE. PENS. PER WEEK. This has moved into the realm of satire.

Buy Pilot G2 pens. Problem solved. They'll still write after going through the wash.

Where is this person getting their pens?

What are they doing to their pens?

What is going on?

Am I high?

That being said I have nearly no problems with the quality of any purchases I've made because I pay, at a minimum, the inflation adjusted equivalent of what I would have paid 20 years ago for the same product. I also research everything obsessively. Like, read the manual and watch YouTube teardowns of microwaves before buying a new microwave obsessively. I have many fewer things than most Americans but all of my shit is the nicest it can possibly be within my budget.

The race to the bottom is a race I do not participate in.

The bottom is where the junk is.

My advice on electric coffee grinders: just buy a manual one with a hex shaft, and drive it with a brushless drill. I've been making drill coffee for years now.

Yeah the problem is legibility. It's easy to see a touchscreen, or to understand a WiFi connection. But it's harder to understand why you should rant an oversized motor that will only be run at half capacity.

Features that increase longevity or repairability are considerably less legible to most consumers and therefore get removed first when trying to cut costs.

Exactly! You can still get kitchen appliances that last, but you need to be prepared to purchase pro catering equipment.

High quality toasters still exist - be they in conveyer belt form, salamander grills, or the old stalwart: the Dualit professional models.

The same applies to microwaves, hobs, ovens, ranges (combined hob/oven), et al.