Oh man, SO MANY!  :-p  

I mean, in terms of longevity, manufactured products used to be so much better. My family had the same CRT TV from the time I was 4 or 5 until I was like 17, and it STILL worked, but we wanted to upgrade.  Our first flat screen lasted about 3 years before it crapped out.

Furniture today is terrible. Every piece is super cheap from those crummy wooden dowels to the particle board wood. 

My mom complains about this all the time. And it is true. We go through at least 1 iron a year. My mom got a new vacuum 2 years ago and the handle fell off the thing.

I agree with everyone so far. Whether it is the vacuums, the furniture, or the electronics... the term "they don't make them like they used to" is so true.

When our family owned a furniture store, the products we sold (even in the mid-90's when I first started working there) was so much better than it is now. The quality of everything was just better in every way. It's sad to see how crappy merchandise has become now. And we as a society demand it become cheaper to buy, and hence more cheaply made. Soon we'll be washing our clothes in Styrofoam tubs and sleeping on bedding made of cotton balls and those little springs inside of pens.

I'm a firm believer in the "Buy the best, only cry once" mantra. While I agree older products were more rugged and solid, I feel performance wise they can't compare. They just had better housings. It's hard to argue what's more desirable, having a 5 ton fridge from 1970 made of steel that consumed a mass of electricity and caused freezer burn is better than a modern energy efficient fridge with ice and water dispensers that will crap out in 5 years. Heck, your average car prior to the 70s only got about 100k miles then died!

vkimo wrote :

Generally speaking, furniture was definitely better. Along with clothing, textiles and women.  

-end quote

They don't make 'em like Brinkley, Macpherson, or Ireland anymore, do they?

The switch from silicone to saline really was a turn for the worst.

vkimo wrote :

The switch from silicone to saline really was a turn for the worst. -end quote

Where the babes at? Take me back to Baywatch

vkimo wrote :
 Heck, your average car prior to the 70s only got about 100k miles then died!
-end quote

But you could fix the old cars yourself. They didn't put the whole engine behind the timing belt.. You could change your spark plugs easily. Now they are super long and you have to take half the engine apart because they are so brittle. As well as the crappy sensors that 90% of the time cause the problem. For furniture buy Amish. Still made of hardwood the old way. Yeah everything is meant to fail and be thrown out now.

EISXUOIS wrote :

But you could fix the old cars yourself. They didn't put the whole engine behind the timing belt.. You could change your spark plugs easily. Now they are super long and you have to take half the engine apart because they are so brittle. As well as the crappy sensors that 90% of the time cause the problem.

-end quote

You are SOOO right. I can't even change the headlight in my vehicle anymore. You have to take off the front bumper just to reach the housing. It's ridiculous.