I remember my first car, A 1995 Honda accord. The car lasted over 20 years and just started to have breakdowns when I finally got a new one. My parents had the same dishwasher for over 15 years and the same washer dryer unit since the early 90's. Yet somehow the new stuff we buy has a tendency to experience many more problems and break much more quickly. After less than a year that dishwasher my parents bought broke and had to be replaced, the new washer dryer needed a tech to come and fix it, and I've had to take my car for service a few too many times for my liking. Is it the manufacturing that has gone down hill, or is it the new technology? In a world where everything is getting progressively more and more expensive, we are forcing ourselves to buy cheap made in china crap. Even more scary is when we have a made in USA product that is built by a bunch of people who came to the country on an H1B Visa. Is that false advertising?
However we can't just blame these challenges on manufacturing. Most older technology was mechanical, it was bulky and made with gears and heavy parts designed to last. Today's manufacturing is designed to be electrical in nature with computing technology and is designed to last quite it bit less then its mechanical counterparts. Are companies purposely designing poor quality products to make more money? What are your thoughts? Have you experienced issues with "NEW" products?