TGTool
Titanium
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2006
- Location
- Stillwater, Oklahoma
Way back in my twenties I was talking with a Chinese drama professor who said that back in the old days, a musical instrument maker would go out into the woods during a thunderstorm to listen for particular trees that resonate with the sounds, and then return to cut that tree for the instruments. I asked if anyone still did that, and he said, "Oh, no. Nobody can take that much time these days."
In a similar time period the trade school I was attending for machine work showed a movie made by the machine tool manufacturer's association contrasting a blacksmith in Africa making hoes on a small forge with modern manufacturing that reduces the time required and thus the cost of products and allows us the standard of living we have compared to the blacksmith. And I had a hippie friend who came around and visited the shop I had and was peddling an egg separator he made from bent wire at something like $5 for the time he had invested in making them. I didn't buy one. A plastic one at the hardware store at that time was probably 98 cents.
We enjoy all the "stuff" we have because it can be manufactured at these costs. I have Tesa and Etalon mics and love them. And I'm fortunate to have bought them back in the day.. We can mourn the absence of quality tools and instruments but the unfortunate fact is that there aren't enough people willing to pay the cost to produce them, just as I wasn't willing to pay $5 for a wire egg separator and wouldn't pay $35 for one today or whatever the inflation adjusted price is. We're willing to trade "better stuff" for just "lots more stuff."
In a similar time period the trade school I was attending for machine work showed a movie made by the machine tool manufacturer's association contrasting a blacksmith in Africa making hoes on a small forge with modern manufacturing that reduces the time required and thus the cost of products and allows us the standard of living we have compared to the blacksmith. And I had a hippie friend who came around and visited the shop I had and was peddling an egg separator he made from bent wire at something like $5 for the time he had invested in making them. I didn't buy one. A plastic one at the hardware store at that time was probably 98 cents.
We enjoy all the "stuff" we have because it can be manufactured at these costs. I have Tesa and Etalon mics and love them. And I'm fortunate to have bought them back in the day.. We can mourn the absence of quality tools and instruments but the unfortunate fact is that there aren't enough people willing to pay the cost to produce them, just as I wasn't willing to pay $5 for a wire egg separator and wouldn't pay $35 for one today or whatever the inflation adjusted price is. We're willing to trade "better stuff" for just "lots more stuff."