The reality is that the way things are made is always changing. Sometimes they are made faster, with new techniques. Sometimes they are made with new features and new technologies. Sometimes they are made, deliberately, to not last as long.
There are three general categories of change in how/why things are made. These can be called "marketing", "manufacturing", and "labor".
- Marketing. This is the active art of consumerism. This is what makes people want to buy something. The global economy is presently structured around consumerism. The rationale falls into what I would call the "three Fs" -- fashion, features, and failure.
Fashion is a desire for something "new" for the sake of having something new. Change in styles are presented as being "better" than what currently exists. "Orange is the new Purple" (Purple having been the previous preferred color). "Chrome is in". Skirt lengths go up -- or down. Teak is the preferred wood. So, out with the old and in with the new (although, if you keep it long enough, the cycle will come back someday).
Features. New programs require faster computers or more memory. Faster speed requires new connectors and those old connectors won't work anymore. This hat has a higher SPF (Sun Protection Factor). The new game has more versatile character sets and better graphics. There is "improvement" but marketing works to move it from the "want" to "need" category.
Failure. I don't think that many manufactures REALLY design their products to fail (they rely on fashion and features more to entice you to get something new). However, they do have a desired lifetime for the product when they create it. Too short and you won't buy their products again. Too long and you won't need to buy their products again if fashion or features don't draw you away. And, within that designed product lifetime, it causes choices to be made in manufacturing. Given a choice between a less expensive part that lasts "lifetime + a little more" and a more expensive part that lasts "three lifetimes" -- they will make it with the less expensive part. So, manufacturing (next section) is designed with the projected lifetime in mind. - Manufacturing. As mentioned in a previous blog, technology and manufacturing rely on a pyramid of tools and less complicated parts. Manufacturing a DVR requires laser technology, semiconductor technology, power technology, and so forth. What this means to the consumer is that the end product is made up of more complicated, but fewer, separate ("discrete") parts.
It may be faster, smaller, and less energy consuming ("green") but it will also be more complex. Most technology is now manufactured largely by "robotic" technology with humans doing the specialized work that doesn't justify building a more-specific "robot". This is even true for things like clothing where the fibers are made, or spun, or extruded by factory processes and then machined/loomed/created by machines that may only need humans to replace spools or to adjust things that have gone slightly askew.
In summary for manufacturing -- fewer, more complex parts that avoid human interaction in creation. - Labor. This area directly goes "hand in hand" with manufacturing. In countries where labor costs are "high", it may cost more to repair something than to replace it. In countries where labor costs are "low", you can find items repaired in extremely ingenious ways (they weren't designed to be repaired) because the cost of repairing is less than replacement.
So, they DON'T make them like they used to and we probably don't want them to do so. What we do want is to have the items last as long as WE want them to rather than as the manufacturer has determined. Often, choices are available but we don't know what those choices include -- expected durability is not something that is advertised on the packing of products. We rely on consumer groups and other people's ratings to make choices. And, I guess, that is the best we'll do for a while.
