Isn’t this clearly about capitalism’s successes? I love that I can buy new socks. I trade my labor for money, and then I trade my money for the sock-maker’s labor. It’s a good thing at its core.
I DIY my stuff to be able to step back from the grind and feel connected to my life. I don’t think it’s mandatory. I just happen to like to do it. Feels like touching grass in a way
Doing all of that myself, it takes less time than you might think. Just gotta have a healthy dose of “Nobody cares if my hobby website barely functions and my selfmade pants look like shit” so you can half-ass it.
On another note, my ugly self made pants have pockets large enough for a nintendo switch and 2 phones. That alone is worth every second spent on them.
spoiler
Ugly??? Those are cool as fuck!
it takes less time than you might think
Wife got into some amateur tailoring and stitching. She’s spent a total of $300 and two extended weekends futzing around with fabrics and modifications. The end result was one very cute concert costume she’ll probably never wear again and three more mangled outfits she wasn’t attached to before the work started.
It’s an interesting hobby. But not what I’d call a trivial pursuit. Lots of time. Lots of craftsmanship. Lots of asking your husband why the electric sowing machine isn’t working properly. Lots of putting things on and saying “Is this too tight around my hips?” and then deciding its not what you were going for so it goes in the trash now.
No sane person should be taking this up as a cost saving measure. You can find a dry cleaner that does tailoring who will add extra large pockets to an outfit for a few bucks, no problem. You don’t need to DIY just to get these things done.
No sane person should be taking this up as a cost saving measure.
Oh absolutely! With the over-abundance of fast fashion and shopping addiction, the cost conscious route is always to buy second hand. Love platforms like Vinted for that.
Sewing is a hobby like any other, I’m just saying that if you want to make something uniquely yours, the barrier of entry is lower than one might assume. And in the end, making one cute outfit you only wear once is worlds better than getting a cute outfit of Shein and only wearing that once.
My own sewing machine was like 50€ off Aliexpress and I use second hand bed sheets and free patterns. So it actually has worked out for me cost-wise so far, surprisingly 😆 Even got some free extra screws when I took it apart and put it back together once!
don’t get me wrong, i like doing things myself not unlike you do, except with electronics and stuff. i’m also into tooling up to make and maintain my own stuff because beyond needing to do it, i also like it.
the point is why waste time and resources manufacturing stuff we know is bad and centering the entire economy around selling this stuff to the point we are damaging the ecosystem, when in the end we have to make it all work ourselves anyway
Fair question, I personally believe that capitalism runs on money, so stopping things like the rapid decline of manufacturing quality can only be achieved by not playing their game and not giving them money. In this case you could either do it by making things yourself, or by buying things second hand so that the original manufacturer doesn’t profit from it. The second option is definitely more practical, but making things from scratch is also pretty fun
There is of course a heavy dose of privilege involved, as there definitely are paradoxical situations where you can’t afford to not support shitty practices. Doesn’t mean that it’s all pointless for all of us and no one should ever try.
we are in agreement on that, just that it isn’t always easy to escape. sometimes you do need new parts and they will sadly make the whole worse for using them.
i think of a more definitive solution to capitalism, but that’s seemingly so far away still… still trying where i can though.
what pants? i just see a hovering torso
jokes aside those are very well done. not ugly at all
perfect pockets
We used to do this as a people prior to he existence of factories but even then we had artisans that we could trade with. They were under a King back then. Is this history repeating itself?
It might be just me, but I truly don’t understand the argument being made here after thinking it through a bit more.
Sometimes when people complain about things like “these pockets are too small”) there’s a tendency for people to make retorts like “just make them bigger yourself!” This post is complaining about those types of responses.
I think maybe that instead of relying on dedicated craftspeople, we have to compromise and attempt to do things ourselves as unskilled individuals.
Products and services did not keep getting cheaper and better under capitalism. I think thats the promise failed.
and still paying a high price for still having to compensate for shitty goods.
if capitalism is incabable of making them durable, we should at least have free time to deal with this shit.
The future I want and we used to be promised looks like the Jetsons or Star Trek, where everything menial is automated away, I have time to pursue what actually interests me, and I get to chose my own path in life. The future we got was Cyberpunk 2077 without the neon aesthetic and socks that wear out from standard use in the span of a year because nothing is built to last any more.
I think the star trek future is still coming…just remember that in star trek canon, the 21st century is very interesting.
Sanctuary districts
Court of the post atomic horror
Whales
Valid point, the Star Trek universe is not without its dark history and calamitous events, still the Federation, for all its flaws, its evil admiral problem, and Section 31, even shortly after the atomic crisis, it’s still a society that has solved poverty and homelessness on their own planets and eliminated most medical annoyances, like the common cold and headaches.
And even the Ferengi the cartoonish caricatures of unrestricted capitalism are quaint compared to the horrors that capitalism of the real world present day.
I think what they’re saying is that companies have a financial incentive to provide goods and services that don’t last after use, so consumers have to either make do with what they have already bought or consumers have to buy more, thus giving the companies more money
Yeah, it seems as though this person learned the buzzwords, but not the concepts. You are going to be using your labour regardless, so why would it not be preferable to use it directly for yourself? Of all the things capitalism promised, free stuff was never included.
Capitalism promised us better technology, cheaper products and more efficient use of our time and energy, and yet we went from fully metal constructed refrigerators that used to last multiple decades of borderline abuse to cheap pieces of plastic that break and shut fown if you use the wrong drm controlled water filter and we can’t even fix it ourselves any more because the corporations owned by capitalists don’t sell replacement parts to the public, don’t have schematics freely available, and purposefully design their stuff to break even worse if you do try to repair it.
Yeah, this is a really lazy attempt. Boo hoo, my sock has a hole in it and I don’t want to fix/replace it, therefore capitalism sucks? Come on, you can do better than that. Your socks will still get holes regardless of our socio-economic system.
We have all kinds of branding on socks about all the SpEcIaL sWeAt WiCkInG tEcHnOlOgY for maximum sweat wickage, and yet companies can’t make a sock that lasts as long as socks from 50 years ago. What the fuck are companies spending all their research on to make these apparently incredible socks that barely last a year or 2 before they wear themselves thin? And then because they’re these super proprietary blends of synthetic materials, any repair job is going to be a pain in the ass to make even as good of a repair as decent quality cotton socks from 50 years ago.
Learning how to mend/fix (and to a lesser extent DIY) stuff is an essential and basic skill, even the best fabric will get damaged with time, even if it was made to last as long as possible. So if it still fits and is fixable, you should learn how to.
Even under socialism (as in worker control/ownership of the economy) it’s important, arguably more so because useless consoomer commodities aren’t churned out at a breakneck pace and you have to take good care of your things.
(The post sounds like western whining TBH 💀)
even the best fabric
i wish i was getting the best of literally anything.
the problem here is precisely that we are getting cheap disposable stuff for a price we already can’t pay. i keep having to fix silly new-ish things constantly beyond what’s usually already a week of constant laboring.
why do people have to work so hard producing things, while these things are still all garbage?
if we are supposed to be resourceful and fix everything, why don’t people usually have free time to do so?
for all its worth i’m not western and the problem is probably worse here.
Learning how to mend/fix (and to a lesser extent DIY) stuff is an essential and basic skill,
Abso-fucking-lutely.
Just going to say that socialism won’t guarentee that we won’t churn out trash at an absurd rate. I strongly doubt we would if the workers owned industry as most people likely know that’s a fucking awful idea but I often find people transplant their best world onto socialism.
Look at how many people voted in trump. Sometimes people are stupid and even under socialism poor choices can be made. Still the better solution though.
Lastly, yeah, sewing and basic repair skills are some of the things I’m most glad that my school forced me to do. Little bit of wood work, little bit of sewing, little bit of home cooking. Nova Scotian middle school didn’t fail me there
Just going to say that socialism won’t guarentee that we won’t churn out trash at an absurd rate.
The USSR and the 80s-era Dengists were notoriously bad about pollution and waste. Modern eco-socialism is very much a product of the 90s/00s.
That said, the idea of a Planned Economy is one in which participants learn techniques for accounting and prioritizing the resources and labor available within a community. Ideally, this is managed democratically, such that people can communicate their demands amongst one another and research the best approaches to achieving their intended goals. Then they get to reevaluate the intended goals over time and adjust accordingly.
Little bit of wood work, little bit of sewing, little bit of home cooking. Nova Scotian middle school didn’t fail me there
We had a woodworking class in my New Jersey elementary school. Introduced kids to power tools at 4th grade, fully including circular saws and industrial lathes. When my family moved down to Texas, all that vanished. We were doing finger painting in 6th grade, because the teachers didn’t have brush kits for the whole class. And this was in a relatively affluent suburb of Houston.
Nice to live somewhere that wants to spend money on educating the next generation. Sucks to see a bunch of O&G desk jockeys in McMansions underfund their elementary schools so they can save a few bucks on their property tax bills.
At the same time, “Just do everything yourself” is a foolish ideology that leads people to think everything in their house can be fixed easily. The end result is a bunch of shoddy half-done home repairs that undermine the quality of the house over the long term.
As an anecdote, my next door neighbor tried to DIY a rotting balcony railing a few years ago. Took the whole thing down and rebuilt it… crooked. Now they can’t sell the place, because every inspector who comes out to look at the house points to the railing and says “That’s improperly done, you’re going to need $10k to fix it”. And the owner thinks he did a good job, so he just goes fishing for another buyer. Been on the market for over three months now.
Socialism assumes a rationally planned economy, just FYi
Socks is a weird one to start with considering people absolutely used to mend, if not knit their own, socks. Everything was expensive when everything was built to last. No 10-pack of socks from Walmart. You might have only had one pair.
They do still “make them like they used to” but they’re priced accordingly. And with more things we “need” nowadays, there’s not enough money to buy high quality everything. Not to mention the overabundance of trash which necessitates researching good products…
can u tell me a brand that makes lasting socks? i already tried expensive well-known brands like adidas and puma and they still kinda suck
I’ve had pretty good luck with People Socks, they have some pretty decent Merino socks. Got a 4 pack about 5-6 years ago, finally got a few small holes this past winter after a few years of heavy use. Soft, warm, and breathable (mostly just because they’re a good Merino blend), pretty worth the price. I’ve also tried darn tough, and while they are decent (dress socks, but still) I usually prefer the people socks. Just remember not to dry them in a drier.
Darn tough will give your socks a lifetime warranty. I’ve sent a few socks in that got holes, but most of these last longer than other brands, I just happen to walk a lot.
Darn Tough. The hold up pretty well, but they also have (caveat: I haven’t had to invoke it in a while) a lifetime pretty much no questions asked replacement warranty.
I’ve heard great things about Balega but I don’t own any.
I don’t like wearing socks at all outside of winter so I get the thinnest pairs possible for when shoes are required. I just checked for the brand on my favorite winter pair but there’s no label to be found!
My aunt knit me a pair of socks 30 years ago. They’re still kicking. I’ve darned them and I love them. They’re the color of clown barf because I was in middle school at the time.
They absolutely are not priced accordingly. Cheap garbage is expensive and “quality” garbage is expensive with no guarantees on quality or longevity.
Expensive has never meant good but good usually means expensive. What I’m saying is that people make these comments as if good stuff was replacement by shitty stuff when it hasn’t, they’re just not even considering anything out of their budget…like it would have been
People will complain their $200 IKEA table falls apart but the option to pay a craftsman for a quality table never went away. A good table will outlive you but expect to pay over a grand, though.
so are we just supposed to guess what is good or not?
No, I addressed that in my other comment as a downside - there used to be ONE option for things but now with so many options, we have to do some research on what is good vs just expensive
that’s just more unnecessary labouring for us to actually get the things we are paying for. more waste of or time and labor for the sake of capitalism.
what are the good fucking things?
why do i have to waste time in this sort of meaningless bullshit to get a measly computer mice that doesn’t double click, isn’t this supposed to be efficient?
This, specifically, has nothing to do with capitalism lol
Competition exists outside of capitalist hellscapes. Shitty craftsmen and shitty goods exist. It always has, there’s just more people making things. You used to only have access to what your local shopkeeper stocked, now you can get stuff from anywhere. You just had to trust them that it was good which it seems you’re assuming was always true.
You have to “waste your time” because you care about having a good quality mouse. My mom uses the shitty $3 mouse than came with her refurbished HP workstation and she has no interest in replacing it.
Picking a (historically) complicated electronic device as an example of how things are worse now certainly was a choice. It’s an increasing niche device, most people don’t even own a desktop.
nothing to do with capitalism
yes it does lol. isn’t that the entire stated excuse behind the capitalist “free market” and liberalism?
(historically) complicated electronic device
what? computer mice has been a solved problem for decades. the one i got in the early 2000s lasted me 15 years, the subsequent ones never more than a couple without issues despite paying more for them.
the fact i can’t expect something as simple as a motion tracking device with buttons to work perfectly for longer than the warranty period anymore is the entire fucking problem in the first place.
i can exemplify with disposable clothes instead if you think that would represent planned obsolescence better? or all the other garbage that keeps breaking and i keep having to fix or replace?
Yeah but building your own PC is an enjoyable, satisfying task. Especially knowing that you’re getting exactly the machine you wanted, because you hand picked the components yourself. No need to worry about the builder cheaping out on the cooling or power supply, because you are the builder.
‘just try to have empthy’ ‘just boycott bigots/fascists’ ‘just try to think logically’ ‘just understand the need for human solidaity’ ‘just read the manual’ ‘just say that genocide is wrong’ ‘just forge community bonds and help your neighbors using the tools and abilities you already have’ I’m sick and tired of being a
smartape with complex social structures and I just want to focus on myself in a place where no one will ever challenge me and I am always correct.Local moron discovers basic self-reliance isn’t as nice as having someone else do menial work for you, more at 11.
basic self-reliance isn’t as nice as having someone else do menial work for you
Tailoring is a craft. Coding is a craft. Sketching is a craft. Cobbling is a craft. Cooking is a craft. None of this shit is menial when you want it done properly.
There’s a huge difference between self-reliance and doing-everything-yourself. Knowing who to ask in order to get help is as much a critical component of adulthood as knowing a few basic lifestyle skills. Anyone who tells you they do their own electrical work to save money is either an actual certified electrician or an idiot who risks getting themselves killed.
Look up and squint, you’ll see my point.
another local moron is ok with paying a high price for cheap disposable goods and calling it “rugged self reliance” or “pulling themself up by their bootstraps”
An entire childhood of getting your reading comprehension tests back face-down and yet your confidence in your assumption is absolute.
any actual points or arguments though?
Does… Does he think that capitalism works… for HIM?
But I did learn to cobbler shoes
