Appliance yourself

When I was young, oh such a long time ago, we had in our house: Refrigerator, stove, toaster, vacuum cleaner. In the living room was a console with back and white TV, record player and AM/FM radio. FM was classical music. The TV got three channels, ABC, NBC and CBS. When we went to the beach we took along a portable, battery powered radio which according to the proud statement on the side contained "Three Transistors!" Our family photographs were taken with an old Brownie. No one in my family drank coffee but we had a perculator for when there was company. It was a big deal when mom got a hair dryer for Christmas. The one telephone in the house belonged to Ma Bell, we merely rented it. The house was heated by a single gas wall furnace, to cool it we opened a window. In the driveway was an old Ford Fairlane. On the weekend us kids would pay 35 cents to see a movie at the local theater, or the whole family bundled up in the car and we went to the Drive-in.



We were middle class and thought we had enough stuff to lead contented lives in our small community. Pufftt. We were blissfully ignorant. How unhappy we would have been if we had known what we were missing. Imagine a device in your living room allowing you to watch any movie ever made when ever you want. In color!


In my house today: Refrigerator (it is not frost free, it is getting replaced, long story), stove with self-cleaning oven, toaster, vacuum cleaner, blow dryer, blender, micro-wave oven, portable telephone with caller ID, telephone with wires for when the electricity goes out, two cell phones, three color TVs (one is a spare), two VCRs, DVD player, two CD players, George Foreman grill, automatic drip coffee maker, computer with color printer/scanner/copier, cable box, five remote controls, web cam, coffee grinder, hot air popper, electric toothbrush, digital camera, video camera, Game-boy, telephone answering machine, electric massager, cassette player, mini-cassette recorder, heating pad, lap top computer with color printer/scanner/copier, and a hand held laser pointer! Central heating and air conditioning keeps the house at just the right temperature winter and summer and I have a small space heater in my office for cold mornings. A Subaru and a Mazda take up space in the driveway.


Typical for today's middle class household.

Mandatory for today's middle class household. In order for the average family of four to afford all this stuff it has to be made very cheaply. So it cannot be made in America, at least not by Americans. Manufacturing jobs have moved over seas because no one buys well built, Made in the USA, products any more. We can blame Big Business or the government or the illegal immigrants or predatory Japanese trade policies for the loss of well paying jobs here at home. But who is it that goes to Wal-Mart every week and empties the large cardboard boxes marked "ROC"?

Now where did I put the battery powered remote control backscratcher/teleportation device?

OWL

May 21, 2007