Permanently Deleted

  • ComradeMikey [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    where did the soviet makes shoddy goods meme come from? it sounds like they were higher quality than US

    • penguin_von_doom [she/her]
      ·
      4 years ago

      There is an old joke in Eastern Europe: "What is big, red, ugly and doesn't kick you in the butt? A soviet buttkicking machine". Depending on the goods you would get either something that is engineered to survive everything, or something so shoddy it falls apart before the first use (and of course everything in between). The reason for shoddiness however is different than the reason for the same in capitalism. Of course desire to cut costs is important in both systems, but in one case the major limitation is the lack of resources and technological know-how. On the other it's an artificially imposed lack of resources, cause profit must be maintained and costs cut. The upside is that tinkering and DIY was a very big part of culture, so you could repair everything.

        • ComradeMikey [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          i would always call attention to it when i worked pharmacy, i genuinely liked my job when we were full staffed. My slow descent into constant bitching grated everyone around me lmao**___**

      • ComradeMikey [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        I thought there must be a nugget of truth so thanks for clarifying:)

    • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Soviet watches were solid for the most part. Big tolerances so it could be oiled and repaired easily. Not fancy but reliable and durable.

        • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          I like repairing and restoring old vostoks and they're so cool. They basically make a fool of western watches by making a similarly capable diving watch that use's water pressure as an advantage rather than something to fight against.

          The designs are also genuinely unique and interesting to look at. When people say that in communism you don't have any personality or self expression, I just think about the 100's of design variations built around the same 3-5 movements.

        • Shinji_Ikari [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          4 years ago

          Eat your heart out

          True Soviet models have a "CCCP" in small print by the 6 o'clock marker, as well as printed on the movement. The automatics have it printed on the winding bridge which is usually easy to spot in pictures. Post soviet movements will say "RUS".

          I forget where the manual wind movements have it at the moment. I used to know all the movement numbers by heart.

    • blobjim [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      American products used to be decent I thought. Planned obsolescence is a more recent thing.

        • blobjim [he/him]
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          edit-2
          4 years ago

          Well iPhones are one of the only things that noticeably haven't been decreasing in quality. It appears more often with appliances and other things (I suppose even housing now). It's also one of those things that would probably decrease if there was another Soviet Union. There's no "threat of a good example" for people to see. There's no "competing product" (lol) in terms of socioeconomic systems that would force actual improvements.

          • soufatlantasanta [any]
            ·
            4 years ago

            iPhones are a special case I think by nature of how they're a Veblen good and people will continue to buy new ones they don't really need even though Apple supports old ones (everything except the battery) such that they have a lifespan of close to a decade at this point.

            • blobjim [he/him]
              ·
              4 years ago

              Yeah I'm still using my iPhone 5s. Though phone calling is going to stop working in a couple months because carriers will require VoLTE or something like that lol.