Oldies but goodies

That is the title of a music compilation I have somewhere in my cd collection, but it also applies to many things in daily life.
Now, I am not advocating living in your grandparents´ furniture or clothes, but has anyone besides me noticed that the quality of such things that is offered on sale has been steadily declining these last years?
I saw that, recently, when looking for a new coat closet. We went to the biggest furniture store in town, only to find that many of the specimens on sale there were so flimsily made that the material had visibly warped on the pieces on exhibition, while the more solid ones were prohibitively expensive.
The down side of this can be seen every time the pickup time for large trash items comes around- remains of such furniture that have gone to pieces completely stacked up by the curb waiting for the trash lorry to haul them away.
The opposite is what you can see in antique stores and museums: pieces of furniture crafted so solidly that they are still functional after several hundred years- and, of course, being moved and removed several times in a lifetime.They may show the signs of having been used, but they still work.
I´d wish for more such things to be available today, in more modern shapes. Furniture you can really move, use, and handle without having to be afraid of it desintegrating.
And which doesn´t break the bank on purchase.
After all, our ancestors managed to afford that kind of quality, too. And for most people, their ancestors aren´t the Rockefellers or such like.

So, it could be done. But in our modern society, things that really are once-in-a-lifetime acquisitions aren´t very popular.
My Grandma had a washing mashine she had had for some thirty years, and which needed some new parts after that time. When we had the repairman in, he marvelled at the old machine, and said, they don´t make them like that any more because they would not sell enough new ones if the old ones held up like that.

So, we are paying for items with a limited time of usability, having to make do with less than the best quality to keep the economy spinning.
Anyone besides me who thinks there´s something wrong with that?


Julia