What the younger generation doesn't realize in regards to product durability is simple history they know nothing about. In the early 70's major kitchen appliances as well as washers and dryers lasted an average of 28 years...this was according to Consumer Reports back then; today the average appliance lifespan is just 8 years! There is also a huge price difference in appliances, a side by side frig cost $704 in the early 70's but these were considered high end units because most people bought refrigs that had the refrig on the bottom and the freezer on top which nowadays is considered a low end unit; today the average side by side are about $2,400 for a mid level unit. With inflation though $704 dollars is about $3,800 dollars today, but consider the average refrig only lasts 8 years and most of the time they can't be repaired when they fail, well you can see how far we are behind from the 70's.

TV's have become incredibly cheaper today then they were in the 70's, the average TV with a "large" 25 inch screen cost around $750, today of course you can get 50" TV's for only $500 which is way less than the cost of inflation would be...BUT, the average TV today is only suppose to last 10 years and cannot be repaired at all vs 25 years back in the day and it could be repaired. But the other argument is the picture quality is far better today. I guess if you took $500 for the cost of one TV today and times it by 2.5 in order to replace it every 10 years vs every 25 years still makes the modern TV less expensive even over the long haul. We can thank China for giving us cheap electronics.

So in some limited areas we have it better today, but in most areas that isn't true. Plus back in the 70's there were cottage industries that were around to repair all sorts of products that can't be repaired today which put those industries out of business which meant loss of very skilled workers. Even shoes back in the day were repairable, today only the most expensive shoes are repaired that is if you can find a shoe repair person.

Back in the day cars would only last an average of 120,000 miles but today they'll go 220,000 miles. But that is all smoke and mirrors, because cars back in the day ran 70 mph at 3,000 rpm, today they run about 1,500 rpm, a little math will show that a car back in the day that could turn 1,500 rpm would last just as long as cars do today. Gas mileage sucked back then but no one cared either because gas was cheap!