The declining factors ****

[Frankn]

Ok, where did we loose it? WEE know the country has been sliding down hill. I don't think it is a death spiral, merely a decline in quality of living.
Lets start with the school shootings.
I think this is directly related to the change in family style, From a bread winner and homemaker style to a two breadwinner style, or even a welfare style. Kids are learning from kids instead of from there parents. How many times as a kid have you thought of doing really bad only to change your position do to instilled family values?

OK lets look at business. The problem is simple. All the profit is floating to the top.
When I took industrial management in college, it was stated that there should be a FAIR return on investment. Generally, that is 100% of labor and materials on the wholesale lever and an additional 100% at retail lever. I had a reply to one post where someone said it should be as much as you can get! That is the problem 'greed'. It's eating us all up. Look at all the new millionaires, and billionaires! All that money that should be circulating is sitting in the big boys bank accounts. They hide it in tax free foundations and do what they want with the foundation money.
It gives them a big tax break for donations to there foundations. Just think, you have to make up that tax money difference when you pay taxes.

The quality of equipment is dropping. I have a 25+ year old refrigerator in my back room for drinks and excess cold storage. works great. I just replaced my 4 year old refrigrator in the kitchen. The compressor went up and cost almost as much to replace as a new frig. I picked up an old style stainless steel Vitamix blender for $20 at a second hand store. It works like new. The new version is plastic and cost $400. I have gone thru several mixers and blenders. Now for the TV's I use to have a radio/TV repair business. The old TV sets were built to last. The biggest problem was Tubes wearing out. The sets would last for 10 years easily. Today's sets maybe a bit over 3 years. The thing is you can't repair them. They are sealed.
I went to work on my last one that died and found out that the metal cover on the inside was spot welded in place. All engineers know that parts have a rating. If you overate a part enough, it will last forever and if you under rate a part, it will die early. Hay look at the ink cartridges in a printer. Some are programed to die in a certain amount of time no matter how much ink they contain.

In summary, let me say that money is getting tighter and quality is in the pits.
Frank...-

 

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[texasred777]

You're right Frank. The 'good ol' days' are gone and will never be again. Almost everybody is looking for a way to become rich. I play the lottery hoping to hit it rich. However, I buy one ticket per drawing. That's $104 per year. I'll probably never win; but who knows? I spend more than that on coffee and donuts. lol
I remember the first refrigerator that my family owned. It was in 1950. I don't remember just when it 'broke'; but I married in '63 and it was still going. A year before I retired, I bought a refrigerator so we would not have to worry about problems after I retired. About 6 months after the warranty was gone, so was the compressor. They just don't make 'em like they used to.
Look at tools today compared to 'yesteryear'. I have a Craftsman 1/4" ratchet that I have returned for exchange numerous times. I have an older one that is still working great. The new ones have a lot of plastic instead of steel. I have Thorsen 1/2" ratchet that I bought in 1960. It still works great. I also have a Diamond Horseshoe Company 15" adjustable wrench (like a 'Crescent wrench'). I bought it in 1964 at Leonard Bros. (later Dillards) store in Ft. Worth, TX. After using it with a 4 feet long 'cheater' pipe on the handle for a number of years, it's a little worn; but still works great. Try buying a 15" now for any amount of money and use a 4' cheater on it. I will be ruined very shortly.
I could go on and on about quality; but not now.
As for the two breadwinner type families, I was raised in one. Mom and Dad both worked almost all of the time that I and my sis were growing up. Yes, we did a lot of things that were wrong and we knew that those things were wrong because we were raised by parents that, although they worked 40+ hours a week, took the time to teach us right from wrong. We never robbed anybody, never murdered anybody. We were raised around guns. Dad never hunted a day in his life, but liked to have a gun around the house for protection; if only a .22 rifle. That's what I learned to shoot when I younger than 6 years old. I got my first bb gun when I was about 7 or 8. I got a .410 when I was only about 13. I hunted with that old .22 when I was about 12. I have several guns now. I've never pulled a gun on anybody; but would if needed for protection.
I worked all of my life until I retired when I was 62. I always tried to be a good employee because I felt that if I made money for the company, then the company would have more money to pay me. And it worked that way (most of the time). lol I was self employed for about 10 years. I worked hard and had a good reputation as an honest, hard working person. I never advertised. The people that I worked for told others about me and most of the time I had more work than I could do. I was repairing service station equipment. You could ask most stations/convenience store owners who to call for service and the name 'Mr. Red' was heard a lot. Several of the other companies that performed this type of service had a much lower reputation.
If a person works, tries to perform their job decently, and is honest, they will succeed in just anything they try to do. It really is a shame that so many of the people today, at least a lot more than in the past, are looking for 2 things when they work. They are looking for the '5 o'clock whistle' and the 'Friday paycheck'.

 

[Frankn]

Well 'Red' I see we have a lot in common. My two sisters and I were raised mostly by my mother. My father was not around at times(long story). I Picked up a 300 paper route when I was 12, morning evening and Sunday. I also did the collection work. Made $20 a week which was good money for a school kid. I had a colt woodsman .22 that I bought from a friend and a Mossberg 20 guage bolt action. By 14 I had a wizzer motorbike, then a cushman scooter that I rebuilt. 'Traffic enforcement was more laxed in those days'. I educated myself in electronics by using an Ardel course on basic electricity, then a Rider course on basic electronics, then an RCA course on Radio & TV repair. I had an evening and weekend repair business going. Later on, I got into satellite sales and instillation. I have always worked two jobs. My 'day" job with a large corp as a field service engineer and various side businesses like photography, mostly weddings, painting and various other art forms, farming, hay,corn and beef cattle, etc,etc,etc. I even build the home I live in after I lost it all in a fire when I was in my mid 60s. I really don't think the later generations have that much "DRIVE" to succeed.
I mean the average, not everyone. Maybe it's generic and the pool is thinning. Maybe only the millionaires have the drive now and think they are entitled to it all. The only salvation I see is that nature has a way of averaging things out over time but I will not see it in my time. Drifting thoughts, Frank...-

 

[wingmaster]

It used to be a business would rely on return customers and now the thought is if we get everyone just once well we made a billion, then they just close shop and open with a new name. If you see new and improved it most likely means they found a way to make it cheaper then charge you more and it used to be knowing your job and hard work would get you to the top but now they can't afford for you to go anywhere as your the only one that's not lazy and that knows what to do, so what do they do now they make the lazy guy that doesn't know anything boss as they don't get any work done out of him anyway.

 

[Frankn]

It used to be a business would rely on return customers and now the thought is if we get everyone just once well we made a billion, then they just close shop and open with a new name. If you see new and improved it most likely means they found a way to make it cheaper then charge you more and it used to be knowing your job and hard work would get you to the top but now they can't afford for you to go anywhere as your the only one that's not lazy and that knows what to do, so what do they do now they make the lazy guy that doesn't know anything boss as they don't get any work done out of him anyway.

You shouldn't have said that! Now they will know you know what is going on.
I saw it mostly in the government accounts that I visited. They could not fire someone without a year of documentation about it so they just transferred or promoted the person. So you wind up with the dead wood making the decisions. And as we all know, dead wood decays, but in business it does not fertilize it surrounds.
Just some thought, Frank...-

 

[VERDE]

Hey Frank!! Sadly, Sounds more like the VA everytime you kick it around!! Unfortunate for the Vets who depend upon the System!! GOOD LUCK and GOOD HUNTING!! VERDE!!

 

[Frankn]

I was only at the VA hospital a couple of times and that location is closed now. I saw the biggest waste at Social Security. Hay they placed the cartons in the supply in squares, hollow in the center for 'Sack Time'. You could sometimes hear snoring if you cut thru the supply area. There was one guy that never moved the whole time I was checking out equipment, about 2 hours. He was sitting at a monitor. I told the supervisor that he looked like he was dead. She said that he had verified his 3 case quota for the day and was sleeping with his sun glasses on. He will move when the break bell sounds. Hay that's true! Frank...-

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I told the supervisor that he looked like he was dead. She said that he had verified his 3 case quota for the day and was sleeping with his sun glasses on. He will move when the break bell sounds. Hay that's true! Frank...

And that is accepted today....

And that's where our nation went....

 

[texasred777]

Frank, I also operated a radio/tv repair for several years, only part time. From about 68 to 84. It provided a little extra income. I didn't get into transistors that much. I worked on a few. I took a NRI home study course. When we moved in 1984, I stored the equipment because I no longer had the time to use it. When I moved here to Idaho in 2007, I left most of it stored where I moved from. I had some old stuff that I wish I had kept. I had an old Hickok tube tester with the old roll chart, a (can't remember the brand) signal generator, flyback checker, an oscilloscope, etc. It was some old outdated equipment (circa early to mid 1950s) that I bought for almost nothing when a shop closed when the owner retired. The radio/tv experience is what helped me so much when I started working on the electronic gas pumps.

 

[Frankn]

Frank, I also operated a radio/tv repair for several years, only part time. From about 68 to 84. It provided a little extra income. I didn't get into transistors that much. I worked on a few. I took a NRI home study course. When we moved in 1984, I stored the equipment because I no longer had the time to use it. When I moved here to Idaho in 2007, I left most of it stored where I moved from. I had some old stuff that I wish I had kept. I had an old Hickok tube tester with the old roll chart, a (can't remember the brand) signal generator, flyback checker, an oscilloscope, etc. It was some old outdated equipment (circa early to mid 1950s) that I bought for almost nothing when a shop closed when the owner retired. The radio/tv experience is what helped me so much when I started working on the electronic gas pumps.

Hay my repair operation " Midnight Electronics" was part time out of my basement while in school.
I went about the same route. I built most equippment, Eico,signal generator and signal tracer, Peco VTVM , the only thing I still have. I did buy my triplet VOM, I built a scope during the RCA course. I went thru several tube checkers. You had the good one. I also built up a library of Sams Photofax schematics. Left it all in the attic of a house I use to live in.
My specialty was auto radios. I could fix any in 15 minutes and had a flat fee of $20. Most just needed a vibrator, .05 cap and maybe an OZ4 tube or 6AU6 amp tube.
Yes I have some fine memories of the old days. Frank...-