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Re:Aging Parents with Lots of Stuff, and Children Who Don’t ... by dagw on Monday August 21, 2017 @03:11AM (#15062535)
Why do we buy trash?

Because the sad simple truth is that buying trash, using it until it breaks and then buying a new one often makes more financial sense than trying to buy quality.

Re:Aging Parents with Lots of Stuff, and Children Who Don’t ... by ljf on Monday August 21, 2017 @05:08AM (#15063045)
And not only that - buying trash today when you know that you'll be moving soon and possibly have a better income next time you buy. We are putting off major purchases because we can - because there is that option, and the user value of of 'trash' is 80% of that of the version that costs 10 times as much.
Re:Aging Parents with Lots of Stuff, and Children Who Don’t ... by dagw on Monday August 21, 2017 @05:25AM (#15063140)
Also, at least in the home electronics space, there is a good chance that the 'trash' in 3 years time will be better than the quality product today (in short term functionality if not in longevity).

12 years ago I bought the best quality TV I could afford. And while it still works perfectly, it's objectively worse in just about every way then a current TV costing 20% of what I paid for it. However since it was so expensive and still works I cannot really bring myself to replace it.