Why Cant things be the way they used to be???

seriously, why has the quality of products plummeted, but the prices skyrocket?

Look at cars of today, cant work on them, computer controlled...crap! Wheres the fun in it?
Plastic bumpers..., give me 1/2" steel anyday!
Chrome plated steel accents...since when did this become a sin? Why now is the only shiny thing on the car the rims? Nasty rims at that!
The body panels are supposed to protect you in an impact...but in a battle between plastic, and concrete, or plastic and metal...Id let plastic fend for itself. Get into a fender bender today, and the car is totalled...thusly insurance is outrageous! Back in the day, you smack somebody, there bumper was fine, yours was fine..no big deal. just bolt a new bumper on if it was dented. And for the most part you got a different body style each year...nowadays, you may got for 6-7 years before anything is changed.

Look at groundscare, farming equipment. For the most part, its junk. Everyone has bought everyone else out, so now...you have multiple brands, with a single manufacturer. And the prices vary...
The quality has dropped severly! More plastic than steel!, stamped metal frames...skimpy belts, decks that rust through in a year. Blades that you simply can sharpen due to the fact that they disntegrate.

Trucks of today are weak sissy versions of there ancestors. They are held back by there rev limiters, computers and design flaws. You cant do nearly the stuff you could 30 years ago, and they looked better then anyhow!

Houses today are thrown up in a matter of weeks, cheaper products are used, and the quality of labor is tiny if that! few tak pride in there actions anymore, its just a paycheck to them now.

Sorry for the rant..but as a child of the 90's, who wishes he was back in the 60's...hehe it had to be done.

From the time the great depression was mid way until the mid 1970s North American farmers as group amassed tremendous net worth. There may be some pockets of the ag community that did not however.

Do you buy Snap-on tools or settle for Popular Mechanics from Wal-Mart?

If you are like the average American, you want the lowest price for acceptable quality. The result is far less quality than in the past for the hardware portions of equipment. But it is still acceptable to most consumers. Therefore the higher quality products disappear from the new market. I could not afford to buy a new A Farmall (4 cyl inline water cooled 60 inch deck) to mow with, if anyone did make them.

The letter series Farmalls were designed in the same time frame as the 16 cylinder Cadillac, the Cord, Pierce Arrow, B-17, P-38, Hoover Dam turbines etc. Good engineering. They are still efficient tractors in their hp range IF you can get by without high pressure hydraulics, 3-point hitches, power steering, cabs and air conditioning. Most of the emphasis on tractors since the '30's has been higher horsepower through higher RPM's and less weight to keep costs down.

I enjoy working 48 HP tractors which cost $1,000 and get 12 hp-hr/gal with very very little maintenance compared to high speed engines.

But I am using a computer right now and plan on replacing it within two years for the price of a 50 year old M.

In those three decades your very cheapest transportation was a new Ford, Chevy or Dodge every two years, and yes probably 100% built in North America. That is exactly why we were well off. Then someone raised all these cheap Bas#$%2, that thought if they could buy off shore, for less money and live in ultra luxury. What it will ever take to get them to catch on we all need to make money.

I think I'll live in the present, thanks anyway.

steve