We now live in a 'consumable society'. And we have been thoroughly 'consumed' by it and its real owners.
I am thoroughly fed up with corporations that are fleecing us to death one way or another. Either the product they sell is junk (perhaps pretty and flashy but functionally junk and designed to/bound to fail within a certain amount of time) and must be replaced every few years or one cannot use the product without ongoing costs for (very expensive) basic supplies needed to make the product useful (toner cartridges, basic software, coffee pods, CO2 dispensers and flavourings, filters for icemakers and water dispensers, the list goes on and on). I try now only to purchase cheaper smaller appliances (well .. um except things like my freeze-dryer and chamber vac but they only require the occasional oil refill) that don't need 'extras' constantly fed to them in order to do the job they were designed to do and if they go belly up will not disrupt my world too much. Thank you, Instant Pot people! I have had enough fun out of that gadget now that it has paid for itself already anyway.
We can thank the internet (and the rotten education system) for much of this as they constantly bombard us with and promote disposability and a 'designer based, keep up with the Joneses' mentality to the nth degree. People have totally bought into all this, especially since you can buy things on credit (or even better, take it home now, don't pay for two years) and never really deal with the true cost as you would when saving was the thing to do and cash was king back 30 or 40 years now. I am so tired of being asked if I want to buy an extended warranty on something that used to have a 3 year warranty (and outlived that on average by at least a year or so) and now has only 90 days ... and often can't make it that far without issues. Corporations know that people (believe me, they study our habits) will just go buy another x, y or z rather than going through the hassles involved in complaining or waiting for repairs even within the warranty period (after an hour on hold listening to elevator mus-ack and robot voices asking us to decide what foreign language we want to use and make 10 choices for a department to speak to and then punch in the serial number of the affected appliance along with the last 4 digits of your social and the password you had to spend 2 hours remembering ... we get to someone who says - after asking again for all the info you just gave the robot - ... cheerily, in very poor English, Hi I am John (obviously a pseudonym so we can never trace them back to India or Mexico) ... sure we will fix that .. just box it up in the original box with the original sales slip, pay for return shipping to us at our repair depot located in another country - plus include your authorization for a 'restocking' or added 'service' charge and we will be thrilled to take your junk back).
I am limping along with x number of appliances bought within the past 5 or so years that no longer function as they were intended to though most (in my NS house) at least still work at least partially even if I cannot avail myself of all features (like the water/ice dispenser on the fridge, which works after a fashion though it is too cold no matter what temperature I tell it to set itself to hold). I cannot say the same about the ones in my NC house - there I have a 2 year old built in microwave that failed after less than a year, a cheapo microwave that didn't even last that long (and will be sent to the dump next trip), and a fairly new Maytag washer and dryer that both bit the biscuit within weeks of each other. Interesting .. and that Maytag man who used to be so bored when he had no calls is now too busy to come out to fix them. The fancy-dancy expensive computerized, quiet as a mouse, dishwasher worked for less than 2 months - and was used about 5 times - before it began leaking and clanking and finally (sadly but I am almost glad about this since it was no way to relax after dinner listening to the racket and cleaning up the puddles) ... it said ... nope .. no more .. and it is dead as a doornail.
I got tired of complaining - it just raises my blood pressure. I refuse to call the repairman - I will just wait till I feel the proper life of the product has expired and then see what is on the market - and hope that sanity will return within that time frame, whatever it may be. On the bright side my 12 year old Jenn-air stove in NC happily goes on and on and my 'no bells and whistles' 8 or 9 year old 'doesn't have an icemaker' Samsung fridge (which still makes me smile when I walk past it - best fridge I ever bought) takes its lickings and keeps on ticking.
I am afraid to buy a new vehicle either - I don't want all the computerized bells and whistles - I want basic (and very good) safety features and good leather seats but the dog doesn't much care about having a video going in the back seat, I can manage without nav, and I know how to drive (no accidents on the road in over 50 years driving now) defensively (and I do) so little cameras mounted everywhere and constant warning beeps when someone gets too near me are just unwanted and unneeded junk I can do without .. thanks. My 2006 Honda Ridgeline may not be quite as pretty any more but I don't even trust Honda to sell me (for twice the price I paid for this one) a vehicle that will last 10 years basically without a problem other than oil, a brake job, tires and gas costs. All I want is satellite radio and manual knobs .. not a 6 or 10 inch complicated screen and a million hard to read button labels or gestures to try to figure out on the fly ... and good rustproofing.
I can cook on a camp stove or the charcoal barbeque or induction burners if I have to/want to. I can chop and peel things by hand. I 'can' wash clothes and dishes by hand too if I have to and let them air dry (or in the case of dishes, pick up an old fashioned dish towel) . If I sell this place I know people are going to want appliances here but I am not buying them new ones - they can replace them after I am gone if they want to. Refrigeration is more of an issue but a decent basic chest freezer with no computer chips in it should still stand the test of time, one hopes.
Yes, I like 'convenience' but I have not forgotten how to do things the old fashioned way - and I have made sure that in most cases I have prepared myself so I could still do that if I had to. If everyone did that, we could (possibly) affect the corporations enough that they might go back to a more old fashioned quality standard. I would pay more to get any appliance that actually will perform as 'advertised' and last for a good number of years. There can be 'lemons' but I am tired of being the patsy that always seems to buy 'lemons' these days - I no longer believe it is just me - we are all targets. 
I want an old fashioned woodstove, an 'icebox', a root cellar and a passle of kids (well, on loan only ... so I can send them home after they do 'chores') to do the dishes!
Getting off my soapbox now. Thanks, Jason .. that was cathartic! 
(p.s. Yes, I am kind of cranky about all this because I just spent over 20 hours in two weeks on the phone trying to find out why the cellphone I was forced to buy so I could still have one working in Canada when I left the States did NOT function at all from the border on - despite the fact that I was being charged as though it was. After at least 10 calls and 10 different people with 10 different skill sets and ideas about why this was happening it was decided that I was sold the WRONG phone even though the list of phones that function up here is published and this one on that list and now can't even exchange it for 3 months unless I want to drive 500 miles one way to do so at my expense ... without a cellphone in case anything untoward happens on the road! Apparently while they acknowledge THEY made the mistake, not me, they cannot and will not send me a new phone in the mail. Meanwhile, in the background these 'service reps' are apparently changing my plan willy-nilly and I keep getting emails saying my 'new feature' has been implemented and my bill is going UP and UP and UP for NO service!)
