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Aneirin -> RE: A 25-year recession...? (12/16/2011 7:32:32 AM)
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If the mechanisation of processes is seen to be the problem with high unemployment, have we been here before, and did the people concerned have a worthy point present in our modern times ?
http://www.luddites200.org.uk/theLuddites.html
Now myself in this recession, I make stuff by hand, that is no machines in the process at all manual hand tools, a colleague whos'e workshop I inhabit also makes similar stuff to me, but he has a bank of three phase machines to use, the result is he can create many units in a day where I can only produce one or two. Now he can make a living off his production whereas I cannot, yet my craftwork in a more resilient made out of a more expensive material and is to a much higher standard of workmanship, but I cannot survive on my production methods. So the way forward if I am to survive, is to either raise my prices, or mechanise and lose the high standard to which I work plus become indebted to financial providers and the ever greedy energy companies which at the end of the day does not automatically ensure success, but what it will always ensure is debt.
Now through my own observations I have come to the conclusion we have become a a cheap, selfish throw away society, we buy cheap and chuck away when it goes wrong only to buy again, that to me is wholely wrong in terms of resources, but those that create the throw away item, they don't care, because money is being made, depletion of resources is another generation's problem, if not their own.
What I see is the devaluing of products, things cheap and disposable are not valued and the cheaper a thing is the less likely it is to be valued and looked after and with things being cheap it less likely someone may purchase a more expensive more resilient product, because they can get cheaper and chuck away.
Over the last few days I had the interest to service two icons of british industry I own and use, one was a 1936 Rolls Viceroy mechanical razor and the other was a 1913 Singer 128k hand cranked sewing machine, both machines with their skins removed inspired pride in what British Industry used to be, built to last being the term and so many years after they had been built, they are still in regular use. Both machines taken apart degreased re-lubed and reassembled, working as good now as they were when they were first made, for I could not detect any slop or excessive backlash in any of the bearings or gearing.
Also over the last few days, my television has ceased to function and the digital decoder is as erratic as ever, in six years I have gone through five tv sets and three digital decoders, stuff just isn't built to last, it is ust to fulfill a need for a time then buy another when it fails which they most often do usually just outside the guarantee period. We are investing in junk and that is why we cannot compete, if we are to make any attempt at re industrialising our mentality needs addressing first.
I also regularly use an American Sheaffer's snorkel fountain pen and the iconic Zippo, two examples of American ingenuity that I just don't see coming out of the far east.
We need to start saying no to stuff we throw away and start buying what we need that lasts and for the stuff that goes haywire, start building our repair networks again, so we can stop wasting resources and sending our money overseas.
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