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The most sinister is an almost inescapable one, where companies intentionally build things (larger appliances are a huge offender) to fail within 3 to 5 years.
It's the "a poor man can't afford cheap shoes" thing.
They love to "sell" this concept that making items cheaper means consumers can more frequently replace as their styles change. Fuck you, give me a white fridge that never breaks, I don't care if I have to pay double up front.
I realized this was a significant part of my expenses about a decade ago now, and started researching and budgeting for higher-quality products that don't get as much advertisement as their cheaper counterparts. It's been great! What started as a larger expense on the front end has already broken about even on potential replacements that I didn't end up needing, plus I get high-quality items to use the whole way through as well!
It's definitely a good thing to pay attention to just how much you spend on replacing things that broke down unexpectedly quickly. The higher-quality items often exist, but a lot of times you need to seek out the niche communities that focus on those products to help find them and parse through the available options. I'm sure a lot of people just aren't able to front the charge to make the change, though.
Got any tips on researching these things? I'm always concerned that "buy-it-for-life" testimonials are only so trustworthy when the item was made years ago already, and the manufacturing process could have changed since.
Use survivorship bias in your favour. I've a fridge from 1953, wonderful 60s gas stove, a can opener from 1915, pickup from 1983, motorcycle from 1969 etc.
So, just need to swing by 1953, 1960s, 1915 and 1983 on the way home.
I've collected most of that except the bike in the last 5 years, grew tired of new stuff failing and being mostly disposable. The can opener is really neat, seems like 110 years ago they knew how to make something that actually worked and opened cans without leaving sharp edges, much better built than what you get at a store today. theyre 10 bucks on ebay. https://www.ebay.ca/itm/335171281718?hash=item4e09c3e336:g:7LIAAOSwPrFlZofk&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0Exx8HDDFCXcyRYMrVHWpfpb4KkPCs685zBXJr%2FZxP3vXqGhnb8Gz0hHopfDa%2BvUWB9Ul925P1z9C20IVf%2FMQyeN2cM75RwAQg4AMY8FoGc5XXor6AwQgO4mNJjIprA0RHqrSpsqQjSOkugWUJ5oAFiKYhwjMUJrROWGaksLXdLCuFHpVPzolYKOTB5dEPW7uTRpUULrD0YXtrKGZktbDCaKSCA%2F59wj2sh0FiXtT2OTNhFVaTllTptmBt57QcY9NSySvgwxX63NDsK9Xg47wEY%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4iR0YGwYw