Items made in America used to have a stamp that meant something.
And, I guess they still do…it just isn’t anything good.
Buick used to make a 3-8 engine that was so good, so reliable, that they had to start creating other parts that would break down just so the car would need to be serviced.
Samsonite made a briefcase that would hold up for generations, but realized that that didn’t create a re-peat customer, so they made the mechanism in the handle flimsier. The briefcase would hold up.
Even as it would fall to the ground, allowing you to continue holding on to the handle for good measure.
Now, as a country, we don’t even make the core well.
Point of fact, our core has gone to mush.
To support our loyal base of customers, our largest companies force updates out on their programs that diminish the life of their software.
Cameras that used to carry a yeomans load, get part and parceled out so that even if you have three different models, none of them… intentionally…do quite what you need them to.
What we as Americans create better than anyone else is the desire for more, all while advocating for others to spin their wheels in stagnancy for our own personal gain.
Leonard Read wrote an essay called “I, Pencil”. Describing how no one person creates a single pencil.
Now, instead of curating a village of creators, we just advocate for #2.
Quality stands the test of time.
It stands out.
It creates more than idle hands.
Supply chains and a rise in demand do are not sustained from a weak link.
All of this to ask, what is the expense of your dream?
What is it you are striving to create?
Does your hope have a quality to it, or are you really just after idol worship?
I ask in earnest.
Cut the crap.