How to use the site

On this site you will find pictures and information about some of the electrical and mecanichal relics that the Frank Sharp Private museum has accumulated over the years .
There are lots of vintage electrical and electronic items that have not survived well or even completely disappeared and forgotten.

Or are not being collected nowadays in proportion to their significance or prevalence in their heyday, this is bad and the main part of the death land. The heavy, ugly sarcophagus; models with few endearing qualities, devices that have some over-riding disadvantage to ownership such as heavy weight,toxicity or inflated value when dismantled, tend to be under-represented by all but the most comprehensive collections and museums. They get relegated to the bottom of the wants list, derided as 'more trouble than they are worth', or just forgotten entirely. As a result, I started to notice gaps in the current representation of the history of electronic and electrical technology to the interested member of the public.


Following this idea around a bit, convinced me that a collection of the peculiar alone could not hope to survive on its own merits, but a museum that gave equal display space to the popular and the unpopular, would bring things to the attention of the average person that he has previously passed by or been shielded from. It's a matter of culture. From this, the Washer Rama Web Museum concept developed and all my other things too. It's an open platform for all electrical Electronic TV technology to have its few, but NOT last, moments of fame in a working, hand-on environment. We'll never own Colossus or Faraday's first transformer, but I can show things that you can't see at the Science Museum, and let you play with things that the Smithsonian can't allow people to touch, because my remit is different.

There was a society once that was the polar opposite of our disposable, junk society. A whole nation was built on the idea of placing quality before quantity in all things. The goal was not “more and newer,” but “better and higher" .This attitude was reflected not only in the manufacturing of material goods, but also in the realms of art and architecture, as well as in the social fabric of everyday life. The goal was for each new cohort of children to stand on a higher level than the preceding cohort: they were to be healthier, stronger, more intelligent, and more vibrant in every way.

The society that prioritized human, social and material quality is a Winner. Truly, it is the high point of all Western civilization. Consequently, its defeat meant the defeat of civilization itself.
Today, the West is headed for the abyss. For the ultimate fate of our disposable society is for that society itself to be disposed of. And this will happen sooner, rather than later.
OLD, but ORIGINAL, Well made, Funny, Not remotely controlled............. and not Made in CHINA.

How to use the site:

- If you landed here via any Search Engine, you will get what you searched for and you can search more using the search this blog feature provided by Google. You can visit more posts scrolling the right blog archive of all posts of the month/year,
or you can click on the main photo-page to start from the main page. If doing so it starts from the most recent post to the older post doing simple clicking on the Older Post button on the bottom of each page after reading , post after post.

You can even visit all posts, time to time, reaching the bottom end of each page then click on the Older Post button.


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So you can see all the blog/site content surfing all pages in it.


- The search this blog feature provided by Google is a real search engine. If you're pointing particular things it will search IT for you; or you can place a brand name in the search query at your choice and visit all results page by page. It's useful since the content of the site is very large.

Note that if you don't find what you searched for, try it after a period of time; the site is a never ending job !

Technology has made us leap in terms of saving time and efforts. From the conventional pounding of clothes on the rock to the modern cubical white boxes which have several buttons for washing your clothes delicately or permanent press, we have come far from primitive hiccups of civilization.

Unlike other collector's items like watches, radios or cars, antique washing machine models do not allure the collectors, who try to avoid them as much as they can. One of the main reasons is that they are difficult to maintain.

1900 to 1935 saw the advent of old washing machines that were powered by gasoline or electric motors. Gasoline was hazardous and had environmental issues.

Before 1900, antique washing machines were actually run by people. But, invention of internal combustion engine and electric motor changed the scenario and electric powered washing machines became popular.
Since the old washing machines did not have on-off switch, if the clothes or hand of the user was caught in it, the electric chord had to be pulled out or the user could lose her anatomy. Basically, the safety mechanism was primeval.

History of antique washing machine can be traced back to 1800's when rotary washing machines were invented. Then in 1908, Hurley in Chicago introduced Thor - a vintage washing machine that comprised of a galvanized tub and an electric motor. The tub was wooden and turned 8 revolutions before reversing. It was designed by Fisher.

In 1893, Maytag Corporation started manufacturing washing machines and in 1907 they introduced a wooden tub in it.
Upton Machine Company or Whirlpool started in 1911 in Michigan. It manufactured electric motor driven wringer washers.

In 1920 rocker type machines became extremely popular. Judd rocker was amongst them but this washing machine did not have wringer safety release. There was no earth and the terminals were not insulated.
Later, Horton Company in Indiana started manufacturing electric machines, which featured a powered wringer. Additionally, it had a safety release.

J. T. Winans got patent for washing machine that had pulley, which was driven by a water motor. The water motor was belted to the pulley and this was connected to a tap. The water powered motors did not become popular and eventually the company shifted its focus to electrical powered washers.

One of the most interesting antique washing machines belonging to early 1900s was the Laun-Dry-Ette which was manufactured by Home Specialty Company, Ohio. There was no wringer present in it but it comprised of two cups (having an agitator), which produced a twisting motion for better cleaning. This old model is a darling of many vintage washing machine collectors.
According to estimation, there were more than 1000 companies in the early 1900s which were manufacturing washing machines. Most of them were small scale companies, but they all had resources to manufacture electric washers.

In 1691, first British patent was issued for the category of Washing and Wringing Machines.

In 1782, British patent for a rotating drum washer was issued to Henry Sidgier.
Nathanial Briggs was the first American to get the patent in this category.
Louis Goldenberg of New Jersey invented electric washer in the early 1900s.
Since he was employed with Ford, all inventions created by him during that time belonged to Ford.

In 1928, US sales increased to more than 900,000 units, but the sales dipped by 1932 to about 600,000 units only, due to Great Depression.

In 1930s spin dryers were introduced and the entire mechanism was hemmed in a cabinet. Manufacturers started paying lot of attention to safety issues. Spin dryers replaced the electric powered wringers.
Almost 60% of the households in US owned electric washing machines in 1940s.

In 1937, Bendix was issued a patent for automatic washing machine. The machine had to be anchored or fixed to the ground so that it didn't shift while functioning. Bendix Deluxe was introduced in 1947 and it was a front loading machine. It was priced at $250.
GE was the first company that introduced top load washing machines.

1940s and 1950s saw proliferation of washing machines that were mainly top loading.
Some companies manufactured laundry machines which were semi-automatic. The user was supposed to intervene with the wash cycle in order to wring and rinse the clothes.

Every OLD Washing Machine saved let revive knowledge, noise, thoughts, wash engineering, moments of the past life which will never return again.........
These were the days when some washing machines were more like machine tools and bristled with levers and gears. There was a sense of occasion when they were powered up and then helping to guide soaking sheets through those powerful rollers with torrents of soapy steaming water (roughly) pouring back into the tub.

Many contemporary appliances would not have this level of staying power, many would ware out or require major services within just five years and of course, there is that perennial bug bear of planned obsolescence where components our deliberately designed to fail or manufactured with limited edition specificities.

.......The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of todays funny gadgets low price has faded from memory.....
Don't forget the past, the end of the world is upon us! Pretty soon it will all turn to dust!

Have big FUN ! !


©2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 Frank Sharp - You do not have permission to copy photos and words from this blog, and any content may be never used it for auctions or commercial purposes, however feel free to post anything you see here with a courtesy link back, btw a link to the original post here , is mandatory.
All sets and apparates appearing here are property of
Engineer Frank Sharp. NOTHING HERE IS FOR SALE !

Saturday, May 27, 2017

HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES WERE BETTER AND CHEAPER 40-50 YEARS AGO !




The Truth About Economic Globalization & “Cheap Goods”


What do flat-earthers and economists have in common? They both mistake their models for reality. They confuse what ought to be with what is. And that’s why economists are often wrong even when they all agree, like when it comes to global free trade. Ask 10 economists about global free trade, and 10 will say it’s good. Always good. It’s one of the few things economists agree on.

Why?

The logic’s clean: freer trade allows greater specialization, and therefore the maximization of comparative advantage. That means cheaper, and better stuff .............................in theory. 
 Before critiquing it, let’s first define comparative advantage. Basically, it’s the idea that countries should trade stuff they’re relatively good at making for stuff they’re relatively bad at making. This improves economic efficiency, since everyone makes what they’re best at, which, in turn, means there’s more stuff to go around. According to comparative advantage, trade is always a win-win that makes everyone richer.

But are they right? Has freer trade with the developing world, with countries like China and Mexico, benefited European/American consumers?........................... No.

There are lots of reasons why economic globalization doesn’t work, but in this article, we’re going to look specifically at the cost of household appliances, since they’re some of the biggest purchases people make in their lives. Also, appliances haven’t changed that much a dryer from 1976 will get your clothes just as dry as one from 2017. This means we can compare the products more-or-less directly. The data shows that freer trade, and offshoring hasn’t made household appliances cheaper. See for yourself:

economic globalization --------------------->>  = Bullshit. You heard me. Bullshit. 
There are very few absolutes in life and none in the realm of economics. There are exceptions and limitations to every rule, no matter how robust they may seem at first. Even the “axiomatic” laws of supply and demand can be violated, as happens daily in luxury markets the more expensive the Lamborghini or Gucci handbag, the more people want it. And free trade, the colloquial shibboleth for economic globalization, is no exception. In reality, economic globalization is domain-specific sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, depending upon where you are, and who you’re trading with. For Americans and European , it’s been bad. Real bad. And I think it’s obvious: the signs of America’s and European's  economic collapse are everywhere, from the decrepit and derelict factories in the rust belt, to the astronomically high (real) unemployment rate. People are feeling the pinch.

 Instead, when you account for product quality and inflation (to say nothing of the environmental cost of offshoring to China), household appliances are more expensive today than they were 40 years ago.  Much more expensive.  Free traders promised cheaper goods.  They didn’t deliver.

Modern Appliances Don’t Last As Long As They Used To: 

This Means You Have To Buy Them More Often modern household appliances last about one third to one half as long as they used toModern appliances are, by and large, junk. They last half, to one-third as long as older models.  The main reason why household appliances, like clothes washers and dryers, refrigerators, dishwashers, and ovens, are more expensive today than they were 40 years ago is because they don’t last as long.  They’re junk.  Typically, modern appliances last about 8-10 years.  That’s their estimated lifespan.  But sadly, many don’t even make it that long.  According to a 2013 survey by Consumer Reports, as reported by the Columbus Dispatch, nearly 1 in 3 side-by-side refrigerators broke within 4 years.  Likewise, almost 1 in 4 washing machines, 1 in 5 dishwashers failed in the same period.  Overall, modern appliances are junk and there’re lots of lemons in the bunch.  This is also reflected in company warranties: 40 years ago, it wasn’t uncommon to have decade-long manufacturers warranties.  Now they’re usually 1-2 year warranties and the best you’ll get is 5.

Even the manufacturers know their products are crap, otherwise they’d guarantee them, like they used to. Now let’s compare this to products made prior to the waves of offshoring in the late 1980s.

.................. old appliances generally lasted 25-35  or 40 years, and often didn’t need servicing until the 15 year mark. Between 1950 and 1980 technology, measured in terms of productivity, improved at a more rapid rate than it did from 1980-2016, believe it or not:

The chassis were designed so that they could be repaired, they had modable components, and they used to stock repair parts. They todays don’t anymore, you can’t get spare parts, and even if you did, the chassis will rust away anyways.
There’s just no comparing old-fashioned American European craftsmanship with this modern garbage. The paint is so thin on modern appliances that they get scratched by friggin fridge magnets, and this leads to lots of rust, especially in the back and areas where you can’t see. Just take a peek around the back of a modern fridge and one from the 1960 1970s: new one will have rust spots after 2-3 years, old one might not have rust after 50 or 60.
Not only that, new appliances often have mottled siding, which traps in dust and grit, which allows moisture to build up and rust to form.. In this case, it’s definitely a design failure that wasn’t present in older models.
Although I’d also rather have something new, just because of the energy savings. Power’s a lot more than it used to be, so that’s not something they used to think about.

 Todays Toys Appliances can talk with one another. They can track their energy use. They can be controlled by phones. Now can we just get them to last? All the technological and energy-saving gizmos added to home appliances in recent years have come at an expense: life expectancy. "The average appliance life span is 8 to 10 years," "The days of them lasting 25 or 35  years are gone." According to the National Association of Home Builders, the life expectancy of major household appliances ranges from nine years for dishwashers to 15 years for gas ranges. Other surveys, such as those from the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers and Mr. Appliance, give appliances a few years longer. But whatever figure is used, experts agree that the plug gets pulled a lot faster on appliances today than in the past.

 This is corroborated when you look at manufacturer’s warranties, and listen to the evidence presented by other industry specialists.  Essentially, older household appliances lasted 2-3 times as long as modern appliances.  Not only that, there were fewer lemons, and they lasted longer without requiring servicing not to mention that they could be serviced, most modern appliances can’t be repaired because they don’t sell individual parts.  But that’s a different story.  When product quality is accounted for, freer trade has not made appliances cheaper.  In fact, it’s done the opposite low quality products and parts made in the developing world have hurt European/American consumers.

Why Are Modern Appliances Junk?  

We have better technology and 40 more years of practice making home appliances under our belt. Theoretically, we should be building cheap, amazing ovens, refrigerators, and dishwashers. And yet, there’s no question that modern appliances don’t last as long as they used to what gives? Why don’t they make ’em like they used to? Two potential reasons:

1. Although most appliances are assembled in Europe/America, their “made in EU/America” stickers are totally worthless. In reality, the majority of their integral components are made abroad, in countries like China or Mexico, and imported for assembly in the EU/US. And frankly, the parts are junk. They’re garbage
You don’t have the same level of quality control when you offshore your production remember when the latest and greatest generation of Apple fuck iPhones bent in your pocket? Or how about all the problems Boeing had with their aircraft? Communicating with people that speak English is hard enough now try teaching Chinese farmhands who’ve never used a refrigerator before to build one from scratch. It’s not that easy. Here’s a specific example: in clothes washers, the part that inevitably fails first is the motor. The motors are made in China or at least most of their component pieces are from China. If they were made in America or Europe  like they used to, they’d probably be lasting for 30 40 years like they used to. 

2. The only other reasonable option is that the manufacturers have banded together to build products that are designed to fail sooner, thereby forcing people to buy more appliances. Maybe. But all it takes is for one company to buck the trend and expose the others, and they’d win a 100% market share. People aren’t good at keeping secrets, nor do pacts with thieves last long. Therefore, the deteriorating quality in home appliances is probably mostly because of offshoring.

 In 2015, America’s trade deficit was $736 billion, or 4% of our GDP. Since GDP is simply the total output made by America’s working population, and since 4% of America’s GDP is imported, then it follows that 4% of America’s workers are displaced by these imports. This means roughly 6 million workers are replaced by imports. Worse yet, this probably lowballs the actual numbers, because labor-intensive jobs are more likely to be offshored. unemployment and labor force chart …”it costs America millions of jobs” Looking specifically at manufacturing paints a grimmer picture. American manufacturing contributes $2.2 trillion dollars to our economy. And since 78% of our trade deficit is in manufactured goods, this means that we’ve offshored $573 billion worth of production. That’s one-third of our manufacturing industry. Finally, since manufacturing employs 12.3 million Americans, then we know that roughly 4 million more are displaced by imports. But it’s higher than that. Manufacturing brings wealth into a region, and therefore supports local services and supply chains. For example, a car factory supports hairdressers and accountants, but not the other way around. This “job multiplier” has been studied extensively. As it turns out, each manufacturing job usually supports 1.58 other service jobs. This means that since 4 million manufacturing jobs are displaced by imports, then about 6 million service jobs were also lost. According to this method, the trade deficit costs America at least 10 million jobs. This makes sense, especially when you consider how many Americans are truly unemployed. factory automation, robots.

 It’s Not Because Of Automation You’re probably thinking: “the reason we lost manufacturing jobs is because of automation and technology, not the trade deficit.” That’s where you’re wrong

Employment is a balance between output (how much is made) and productivity (how efficiently it’s made). If output increases, more workers are needed. If productivity increases, fewer workers are needed. This means that better technology will indeed shed jobs (by raising productivity), but only if our economic growth (increases in output) doesn’t keep pace. Between 1950 and 1979, manufacturing employment increased because output grew faster than productivity. This was great for America: wages were high, the middle class was healthy, economic inequality was decreasing the rising tide raised all boats. However, this trend reversed, and by the year 2000 American manufacturing was in freefall. Productivity grew by 3.7% per year (it grew that fast since the 1950s), but output only grew by 0.4% per year. Why? Because we moved our factories to China. We moved them to Mexico. We abandoned our workers in Michigan and Pennsylvania, and threw them to the wolves. In the process, we’ve lost 7 million good jobs without counting those lost In Europe !!! !! !


Modern (theoretical) economics has failed us. It’s led America and Europe down the road to economic collapse, while at the same time empowered and emboldened our rivals (read: China).
We’ve abandoned empiricism (the use of evidence and historical analogical reasoning) for Platonism (theory-first, model-driven analysis). We’ve exchanged robustness for fragility, and predictive power for coin-tosses. There’s a reason economists never get it right.

 My point is that we shouldn’t meddle with complex systems because a few globalist economists think it might be a good idea on paper, and we shouldn’t try to fix something that isn’t broken, which was the case with the economy.

And furthermore all  governements are forwarding the worse tactics to kill us by destroying our  economy and our lives through deceptions at all levels and taxes overall.
And without counting the mass Afro savage scum from governement  forceful imported from Afrika with thousand excuses with skyrocheting expenses and damages to us and to our lives.
More and more elaborate contortions become necessary to maintain the equality delusion, while the rot silently devours. The enemygrants keep pouring in. First a police state, then anarcho-tyranny, then ruins, finally an African all against all. The enemygration policies of the West in miniature world scale. The acquired moral vanity of this madness more than compensates for the inevitable disaster that will follow.

How do we fix it?

 By balancing the books, and prioritizing our economy above others. National preference has always been the winning formula.
We must renegotiate, or scrap, the manifestly unfair “free trade” deals that currently hobble our economy. This would help. Just look at NAFTA. Some said it would create jobs for America. Instead, the deficit with Mexico has grown by double digits every year since it was signed, and it’s cost us 850,000 jobs. This always happens.

Offshoring has given us false savings: the factories in China are using dated industrial processes that are only made possible because of the dirt-cheap labor—if the factories remained in America, we would’ve continued to streamline them & automate.
Offshoring stymied this natural process, and therefore eroded the quality of goods, at a higher long-term price.

We need a tariff (tax) on imports. Right now, American and European companies have no choice but to leave, because it’s just so much cheaper to build their factories in China. This is not only because China is nominally cheaper than Americaor Europe  it’s also because it manipulates its currency, artificially lowers labor costs, and provides subsidies to companies specializing in exports all of which makes China a dirt cheap place to do business. American and European companies don’t have a chance. They just can’t compete with state-backed Chinese companies without relocating to China. Sometimes, free trade just doesn’t work. A tariff will level the playing field, and it will make it profitable for American companies to come home again.


Theodore Roosevelt Said:
Our past experience shows that great prosperity in this country has always come under a protective tariff.
 Finally, some people think that relocating production back to America and Europe will make goods prohibitively expensive.

They’re wrong, here’s why.  

1. There are two sides to the equation: consumption and production. Although offshoring may result in hypothetically cheaper goods, it’s equally true that many people either:
(a) lost their jobs (either directly, like factory workers, or indirectly, like the barber who relied on the factory workers) or
(b) found new, but worse jobs (the average wage cut for a displaced factory worker was 17.5% waiting tables doesn’t pay as good as building cars, go figure).  At the end of the day, the benefits aren’t as big as you think (if they exist at all).

2. The nominal cost of goods is irrelevant what matters is the cost of goods relative to wages (the real cost). Since 1973, nominal wages and the cost of goods (as per the Consumer Price Index) have increased at the same rate.  This means that offshoring hasn’t yielded cheaper goods in real terms, because it undermines income to an equal degree.

 3. This logic doesn’t include something called the Okun Gap, which is essentially the opportunity cost of mothballing capital equipment, and skilled labor when an industry is offshored. Just look at all the abandoned factories and warehouses strewn throughout around USA and Around Europe which is even worse.
 When this is accounted for, the hypothetical “gains” of offshoring are fairly minimal.

4. In the long run, goods are made cheaper by improving technology any gains made by moving production to a nominally cheaper jurisdiction are a one-off. However, they also reduce the incentive to invest in better (more efficient) technology, because wages are lower.
This actually undermines technological advancement, and therefore real economic growth.  It also has the perverse effect of causing highly efficient American and European  factories to be replaced with inefficient (but cheap) factories in China.  This is bad for the world as a whole (because it allocates resources inefficiently), and it’s bad for us in the future (because we lose some of our highest-growth industries).

Nothing is better to increase and enrich the condition of our city - Nation than to give all liberty and occasion that commodities of our city and Nation be brought here and procured here rather than elsewhere, because this results in advantage both to the state and to private persons.


Some Examples of the Deteriorating Quality of Home Appliances:

 Let’s spend a little more time on this, just out of interest, before getting to the cost differences. Here’s a good example of how modern appliances are worse than those made decades ago.

 Let me start with an example: for top loading washers and dryers two of the most expensive parts on the machines are the timer and motor. For decades there were rarely issues with these two parts, but over the past 10 years there has been a plague of washer and dryer timers and motors that fail and have to be replaced… …Motors last about 1/3 to 1/4 as long as they used to. Lid switches are glued together and eventually split and break. Refrigerator door seals are glued on now instead of screwed on, and because of this they eventually start to pull away from the fridge, warp and ultimately fail, which, you guessed it, leads to replacement.

We noticing that integral parts, like the motors imported from China, are the first to fail. No surprise there.  
But there’s more to it than that there are indeed design flaws in modern home appliances that used to be consciously avoided. For example, metal surfaces usepaint dipping machines provide a more even layer of painted to be dipped in paint, which ensured that a thick, even coat was applied to the part and that every nook and cranny was filled. Now, they spray-paint appliances with much thinner coats. This leads to poor coverage at difficult angles (where the metal folds), and it’s also easier to scratch. This causes modern appliances to rust much easier and sooner than they used to. Furthermore, the shift to plastics in lower-end appliances has been a disaster in terms of quality. Plastic parts break much easier from wear and tear, because plastic isn’t as durable as metal. Go figure. And even when they use metal, they use less of it. Overall, home appliances just don’t last as long as they used to, because of poor-quality foreign-made parts, and inherent design flaws, designed to cut costs.

Household Appliances Are More Expensive Today Than 40 Years Ago:

For the good stuff. Let’s look at the retail price of major household appliances historically, and compare them to retail prices in 2017. Historical prices are drawn from the People’s History, while modern costs were estimated given the average retail prices of the appliance from Best Buy and Sears. Finally, inflation was calculated using Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

1. Clothes Washer-Dryer Combo: $1,790 in 1976; $2,000-$3,000 in 2017

In 1976, you could buy an ordinary clothes dryer for $219, and a washer for $199. Adjusted for inflation, the dryer cost $938.36 in 2017 currency. The washer cost $852.66. Comparable washers and dryers today start at around $500 each, and work their way up to $1000 for high-end stuff. 
On the surface, it looks like washers and dryers are cheaper today than in 1976 they’re almost half price. I guess NAFTA was a good idea after all! But not too fast. Remember, we also have to account for the product’s lifespan which is way shorter today. For example, you could reasonably expect your washer from 1976 to last 2-3 times longer than one from 2017 and it probably had a 5-10 year warranty, as opposed to the 1-2 year warranty you’d get today. 
That means that over a 30 year period starting in 1976, you’d probably only need to buy the 1 washer and dryer; but in 2017, you’ll buy 2 or 3 over the same time. Once we account for this fact, the real cost of a washer in 2017 isn’t $500, it’s $1,000 to $1,500. That means washers and dryers haven’t gone down in price. They’ve gone up.1968 Side by Side Refrigerator 

 
2. Side-By-Side Refrigerator: $3,502 in 1968; $4,000-$6,000 in 2017 In 1968 a side-by-side refrigerator cost $499.95, which equates to $3,502 in 2017 dollars. 
That’s pretty expensive. However, comparable products today start at $1,200 minimum, while the average price for bestselling models is around $2,000. Given that you’d need to buy modern refrigerators in the same time, this means that the true cost over the product’s lifetime would be $4,000 to $6,000. Doesn’t look like such a good deal now, does it? 
 



3. Dishwasher: $739 in 1980; $1,000-$1,500 in 2017 In 1980 you could buy a standard under-the-counter dishwasher for $249.95 retail. This works out to $739.54 in 2017 dollars. Frankly, this isn’t even expensive in modern dollars, since dishwashers usually retail somewhere between $500 to $1,000 in 2017. But even if we take the lowest price, dishwashers are still a bad bargain compared to what they were.

 4. Oven & Over-the-Range Microwave: $2,111 in 1984; $2,400-$3,600 in 20171984 Oven Range In 1984 you could buy a decent oven and stove set, with an over-the-range microwave for $899. In 2017 dollars, that works out to $2,111.
 Pretty expensive. If you wanted something similar today, the oven would cost anywhere between $600 and $1,300, and $200-300 for the microwave. If we took a middle-of-the-road modern set, it would run about $1,200. And finally, when accounting for lifespan, a modern oven and microwave set would probably run $2,400 to $3,600.




Household Appliances Cost More Today Than They Did 40 Years Ago Free Trade Didn’t Work

Trade with China was supposed to improve our quality of life. NAFTA too. Free trade was supposed to make consumer goods cheaper. But it didn’t—at least not for the important stuff.

 Instead, we sacrificed our industries and jobs in exchange for chimeras and ghosts the goods weren’t cheaper in the long run, it just seemed that way because the costs were hidden. But when you import junk, you end up paying for it. The piper must be paid. I want to hammer this point home: aside from romance, there are very few win-wins in life. Sure we can offshore our factories to China and get our appliances for half price but the quality isn’t the same, and we just end up buying the same appliance 3 times. It ends up costing consumers more (while fattening up the larders of multinationals). And when the quality eventually improves, the prices go up: that’s what happened with Japanese products. Remember when stuff from Japan was cheap but bad? Now it’s expensive but good there is no such thing as a free lunch. And people wonder why the middle class is shrinking. This is why: hidden costs and stupid people running the show. Help fix the economy, and do yourself a favor. Buy European-American if you're capable to do so.  
 Economic liberalism, just like every other form of liberalism, is cancer.


 I do not know much… but I know this… when we buy manufactured goods abroad, we get the goods and the foreigner gets the money.  When we buy the manufactured goods at home, we get both the goods and the money.

~Abraham Lincoln


 Some Sources:

Crowley, Roger. City of Fortune. London: Bloomsbury House, 2011.
Dolinsky, Anton. “Inventory Management History Part Three: Venetian Arsenal- Ahead of Their Time.” Almyta Systems, Accessed August 2, 2016. http://www.almyta.com/Inventory_Management_History_3.asp
Kaon Consulting. “The Venetian Arsenal: the World’s first assembly line.” Accessed August 2, 2016. http://www.kaon.com.au/index.php?page=venetian-arsenal
Reinert, Eric. How Rich Countries got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2007.

 Bairoch, Paul. Economics and World History: Myths and Paradoxes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Bernstein, Willian J. A Splendid Exchange. New York: Grove Press, 2008.
Chambers, J.D. The Workshop of the World: British Economic history from 1820-1880. London, Oxford University Press, 1961.
Lance, Davis E. and Robert E. Gallman. Evolving Financial Markets and International Capital Flows: Britain, the Americas, and Australia 1865-1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 2001.
Ferguson, Niall. The Ascent of Money. London: Penguin, 2008.
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