I and my friends have adopted a policy of no longer buying crap merchandise. I'm so fed up with buying garbage because it was all I could afford (ahh...college) and have decided that if it's worth having an object, it's worth having one that will work and last. Of course, I don't allways shell out for the newest bestest stuff -- that's expensive! So if I can find somehting used that was top of the line 5 years ago, then a lot of time that's a good investment. In my experience, cheap stuff isn't worth it. Firstly, a lot of times it only lasts a short time, so the cost and hassle of replacing it is about equeal to buying a nice one in the first place. (Not to mention the environmental impact.) But the main issue is use; it sucks to use crappy equipment. The use of a tool should be a joy, whether it's a frying pan, computer, camera, or shovel, the tool should be well made and using it should be as much of an aesthetic pleasure as anything else. Best example of this that I can think of is shoes: sure, you can go to Wallmart and buy 20$ shoes. Most often they will fall apart in 4 weeks, look crappy the whole time, and probably contribute to knee and back discomfort if you do any sort of walking. So in the course of a year you buy six pairs of crappy shoes and spend $120 to wear crap all year long. Or you can wait till the Red Wing store has a sale and get great quality shoes for $150 that will last for YEARS. It's our short-sighted society. The quality products are out there, but we don't allways factor the years into the dolor tag. Sorry for the rant....
Essentialists unite!
