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David Spates They make odometers like they used to "They don't make 'em like they used to,"
you hear folks say. Here's what I mean. Take your car's odometer. (For those of you
who don't know what an odometer is, it's that little numerical
readout in your dashboard that measures how many miles your car
has traveled in its lifetime. How you don't know what an odometer
is is fodder for another day.) Anyway, take your car's odometer.
Has your odometer ever broken down? Have you even heard of such
a thing happening? Did you have an uncle or buddy or former girlfriend
whose car actually suffered such a break down? I can hear the salesman, drenched in hair-care
products and sporting a handshake so overly firm that it would
make a politician proud, making his pitch now. "Well, the engine's been rebuilt three
times, the brakes stick when the temperature dips below 45 degrees,
the motors on the automatic windows have been replaced twice,
and the transmission sometimes just plumb decides to skip third
gear, but the odometer is solid. You can count on that thing
for thousands, if not millions, of miles. So what do I need to
do for you to drive home this little beauty today?" My point is if they can build an odometer
that will last through six geological ages, then why can't they
make the rest of the car last even a fraction as long. The automakers
of the world must have pumped in billions of dollars into odometer
research and development. There's nothing in this world more
reliable. Now that would make people nervous. I'm convinced that the manufacturers of the
world (and I'm talking about all manufacturers here
I'm not just picking on the car guys) could make products that
would last a lot longer if they wanted to. They've done it before. The problem is that we the consumers have
been lulled into a state of mind in which we expect things to
stop working the day after we buy it. Our standards are too low,
and that plays right into the hands of manufacturers. Why make
a product that will last for generations when you can make one
that won't survive to see the end of the year? Then, when the
doodad inevitably breaks, we, the sheepish public, will shuffle
on down to the nearest store and simply buy another one. It's
easier, plus we like to buy things we've already had. And besides, you can't possibly fix a product
when it stops working. No one actually fixes things anymore.
Our disposable society has actually developed a system in which
it's cheaper to buy a new one than to fix the old one. Say you're
VCR bursts into flames while you and your child are watching
Pokémon for the 754th time. Are you going to take it to
the repair shop or are you simply going to stop by your favorite
mart and buy a new one? Right. There you are now, standing in
line at the cashier trying in vain to convince your little cherub
that he doesn't need a battery-powered lollipop that twists in
his mouth. So what's the solution? I don't know. There
are decent products out there, of course. I guess just don't
buy something because it's cheap. It's an old saying but there's
a lot of truth to it: You get what you pay for. But with your odometer, you get a lot more.
Maybe on a $20,000 car, it's the odometer that costs $19,500
and the rest of the car is worth only $500. Yup, that's one dandy odometer. |