Zach Phillips, on the ephemeral nature of modern manufacturing:
“They don’t build them like they used to.”
The idea that materials used to be expensive and labor cheap (or free/enslaved) tries to explain this, but it’s much better explained by the fact that maximization of profit has no interest in building something that lasts.
The past few years of my collecting creative tools has been focused on those things that just “can’t” be built anymore, not because there aren’t the people with the skills and desire to build excellent tools, but because the economic system won’t support those who build them.
Overall build-quality and longevity are two things that I think are lacking in a lot of modern products.