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The loss of these things is commensurate with the loss of the individual himself.

I just noticed your comment about the furniture. I'm not excellent and have a long way to go, but I have gotten into furniture building in the past three or four years. Number one, I've learned a lot. Number two, I have an appreciation for how difficult making heirloom quality things is, along with how much heart and dedication someone doing it with care must invest. Lastly, I've learned how fucking much we've compromised on the quality and standards of almost every kind of furniture and weight-bearing fixture in our homes.

I was moving my brother into a house not long ago. He received a computer desk for Christmas 2020. It was delivered direct. Some Chinese or Taiwanese piece of shit with the 'modern' gray veneer and plastic painted to look metallic. I'm thinking: "This thing was probably bought on Wayfair or something and was 600% more than what it should be."

Sure enough, it fell apart on the first move. I'm not a dumbass mover. I'm kind of obsessive about things like that (I need psychological help!). I'm talking about the kind of motion that is just unavoidable in any move. This thing came apart at three different joints. Of course they all used those godforsaken cam doohickeys, the ones with the pins where you turn the 'locking' nut to secure it. Absolute fucking trash. Particle board covered in one fiftieth of an inch of veneer.

Contrast this with an antique desk that my grandmother owns. It has survived three or four moves, not even counting any before she became owner of the piece. This thing is a beast, a terrible pain to move really. But it's heavy and quality. She hasn't really kept up maintaining the wood as much as she should, but besides some UV affects, this thing is solid as an oak.

I understand that you can get custom fine furniture built today, but with the trends being what they are, it becomes insanely expensive. Even in the mid-range of the kind of shit everyone's buying, you can poke these things with your finger - fully assembled - and just feel the amount of play in the structure.

But it all fits with the consumerist model. It's not economic for a company to build something that could last a century or more. Instead, make things that dissolve into dust during the first move. And then they'll have to buy another! And they will! Why? Because most people don't even grasp the economics of paying three times as much for a quality piece that lasts a half-century, as opposed to buying a new affordable one every three years for the same amount of time.

I have noticed, however, that many of the women in my life don't seem to mind or care too much about quality. If something 'looks right from the road', matches their overall decorating theme and gives them the druglike satisfaction of making a purchase, it's fine. It's almost as if a lot of people would prefer the accelerated buying cycle because buying shit is the height of their experience.

Sorry for ranting.

My gut says it's tied to the same idea as ESG. Somehow they are incentivized to have this shitty imagery and it's not just that handful of big designers went to the same school.