Comments on: They Don’t Make ‘Em Like They Used To

By: The Entrepreneurial Mind

The Entrepreneurial Mind — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 01:13:15 +0000

Welcome to the Carnival of the Capitalists!
Welcome to this week's edition of Carnival of the Capitalists from my office at Belmont University in Nashville! This is the second opportunity I have had to host COTC. My has it grown! I hope you enjoy what my...

By: Neal

Neal — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 19:23:30 +0000

That is the first I have seen of an IH refridgerator since 1977. Helped a girlfriend move hers and thought the dolly and my back would both break.

By: Norman Rogers

Norman Rogers — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 15:54:02 +0000

Of course, that fifty year-old appliance uses three times the energy (per cubic foot of capacity) that its modern replacement requires and would cost ten times as much if it were still manufactured today.

And, when it does fail you'll quickly chuck it (if you can lift it) because no one makes replacement parts for the damned thing.

Appliances have a useful life. Deal with it!

By: Bryan C

Bryan C — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 15:06:59 +0000

I know exactly what you mean. Our family had an ancient GE fridge that just wouldn't die. After we outgrew it my dad used it for storing film and batteries until it was eventually sold when we remodelled the garage. It's probably still in use somewhere. The 30-year-old Frigidaire ("A Division of General Motors") that came with the house I bought just died last month. It was repairable, and if my wife hadn't wanted a new fridge it'd be fixed instead. But the white and gold 1950's freezer in the basement is still humming away. It was bought by the previous homeowners from Dutterers, a local meat-packing and delivery business. The freezer apparently outlived the company.

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 14:15:32 +0000

This might make an interesting addition to CotC, as a discussion of a product history, quality, and change.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 14:04:01 +0000

To whom did IH sell off the division? Under what name did it continue, and for how long?

And I think AG comes close to raising the main point: household appliances have reached a point where, in adjusted dollars, they sell for much, much less than they did 60 years ago -- in terms of buying power, a typical consumer in 2004 works for maybe a couple of weeks to buy a name-brand reffrigerator-freezer, whereas his parents or grandparents would have had to work much longer to pay for even a non-IH equivalent (with far fewer features).

Making such an appliance capable of functioning without fail for 60 years would quickly price it out of the market, putting the company out of business long before deferred obsolescence would do so.

By: Attila Girl

Attila Girl — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 07:27:47 +0000

Is there a connection between light weight and short lifespan? I wonder. I suspect that the two are independent variables, and that as companies began making appliances "better" in some regards, they realized that it wasn't in their best interests to make them last virtually forever.