Why so many gloom and doomers on this site

6PakBee said
So what does France have to do with it? We aren't there. They have the ability to set the direction of their life and if it isn't like it is here, or as good as it is here, they made it like that.

It isn't "our" time any more. Agreed. But when it was, you could get parts in a timely manner, 99% of the time they fit without a rework, and 99% of the time you weren't replacing them because of quality issues. Customer service was in person, by phone, or by mail and the vast majority of the time it worked pretty well.

So now you are telling me I just have to accept and put up with the **** I contend with on a daily basis? That I just have to "understand" my limitations? And some how that is going to solve the problem of firms hawking Chineseium parts that may or may not fit? That somehow with all the advances in communication, that is going to solve the problem of crappy customer service? That I "understand" all this?

I am so sorry that people of my age "annoy" you when we compare how much better it used to be to what it is now. Somehow I remember something about learning from history. Maybe you should realize that it WAS better back in the "good old days" and quit trying to feed me **** and telling me it's chocolate.

No that's not what I'm saying.

I only used France as an example to show the relative superiority of life in the United States. By no means does that mean we can just rest on our laurels because "at least we're still better than them". I'm simply trying to put things in perspective and help people realize we can't take our American rights and freedoms for granted.

I'm saying, if you got a problem with something, do some homework about it and do something instead of complaining and regurgitating facts about the past that are painfully obvious to everyone at this point. Times WERE better back in your day. But they aren't coming back. And the reason times were better had very little to do with the choices normal everyday people made. Why did customer service go to ****? Because large corporations bought or pushed out the little guys in the industry and couldn't give a rat's *** about taking care of the customer. And everyone went along with it because times were still good so, who cares?? Our economy was flourishing based off our successes in WWII and the dominance we had on the global economy which our government and large corporations ruined starting in the 1970s thanks to short-sighted decisions and policies put in place all just to make a quick buck, who cares what happens 10, 20, 30 years down the road. I'm a history buff, I soak up information about past times as much as I can because I think it's the best way to understand and prevent mistakes from happening again. But it only works if everyone knows about it AND has the balls/ovaries to really make big changes in how we do things on a large scale.

I'm trying to make a difference by refusing to buy Communist Chinese-made products. I buy USA-made where possible but if I can't, at the very least I try to buy from countries that don't have a communist regime and aren't actively trying to undermine our nation. I also don't support companies with shitty short-sighted business practices that care more about shareholders and revenue over the next quarter instead of 5- or 10-year plans. I also try to inform people around me about current events and actions we as normal citizens can take to try to improve the situation and get in contact with local and state government officials to push for reforms and let them know my issues and concerns as a U.S. citizen. Last but certainly not least I work a job at a company designing a new type of energy storage device with the intent to revolutionize our electrical grid and vastly improve the efficiency of how we transfer and use energy to do work and improve our quality of life so we don't need to rely on foreign countries for resources or unsustainable sources of energy. Will it make a difference? No way to be sure but I'm sure as hell gonna keep trying.

Something I feel compelled to point out, I'm not a teenager, you don't need to sarcastically lecture me on the merits of learning history and virtuous conduct like so many older folks do for some silly reason. You obviously aren't sorry for **** so don't be sarcastic about it. I hear you and agree with you, let's just be straight with each other and talk like adults. I'm over the kind of fatalistic negative sarcasm that makes y'all sound really wimpy to be honest.