America's Addition to Saving Money

I recently saw an interesting article: Is Our Addiction to Saving Money Destroying the Real America? [zenhabits.net]. The premise is simple: by trying to save money, people are spending more and more money at chains, driving family-owned businesses out of business.

This is a premise that I have been arguing about for a long time now. But I think that it goes far beyond just the chain/family-owned business choice. For instance, when people buy computers and consumer electronics, price is almost always the key spec that makes or breaks a purchase decision. People don't go to the trouble of finding out whether one company or another makes products that are more reliable. And as a result, with everyone voting with their dollars, companies that used to make consumer electronics that were very reliable (which are, of course, more expensive to produce) are forced to make cheap crap just to survive. These days, it is almost impossible to find a network router that is expected to last more than a year. How often have you heard of people complaining that their DVD player quit after only a year of use?

And as more and more buying shifts to stores like Walmart, it of course has a cascading effect of shifting more and more manufacturing overseas. You're not going to find many American-made products at a Walmart (especially in areas like clothing). It's our obsession with saving money (combined with ignorance, I suppose) that is dooming us.