> Do that. Then come back and tell me how it feels to have some fucker in China clone your product.
I'm sure that would hurt, but also am deeply convinced that the tendency to overprice ideas/products just because the western economics says it's the right thing when there's still demand, is what creates opportunities for cloners. Ask yourself why we don't see people around photocopying physical newspapers to sell them at half the price and you get the answer to why other products are cloned.
> This is written to mislead people who do not know the relevant background information.
How dare you put words in my mouth. I have no skin in this whatsoever. It was written as a statement of fact as I see it. The motive behind the scarcity is not something I was discussing, and is, as I said a commercial one. Legislating that a 3rd party parts market must be catered for is potentially a slippery slope.
As for anti-capitalist? This is right out of the capitalist playbook! False scarcity leads to control of the market place, which leads to capital, by way of higher repair parts or increased revenue in terms of new device sales instead of repairs.
> So nice to see electronics made somewhere other than China. Hope we can see this done more often.
Indeed. Is there an online store that specializes in products not made in China? Or at least allows me to filter products by country of design and manufacture? I'd give anything to have that filter on Amazon. It would get rid of most of the scams and shoddy products that end up in wastelands shortly after purchase.
I really don't mind paying a premium for products built elsewhere. I'd rather pay extra for quality than buy another cheap Chinese knockoff.
> I am as equally as surprised by their surprise about how much R&D is involved in making a "simple" lamp.
I think your surprise is justified, especially since you've been in this world for a while. But I think there is an apparent (but not real) contradiction between offering designs for free so people can go and build something themselves, and then charging money for R&D. This is what is meant by the term trade secret.
re: Woodworkers and co -- sometimes. Room & Board doesn't share their designs. Tartine Manufactory probably has a cookbook.
> You're reading into the comment an emotion that did not exist when the message was sent. If you read hostility, then that's no what I was trying to infer.
I'm genuinely really happy that this is not the intent. Challenging phrases and Socratic questioning can really come off as hostile.
> > I don't believe manufacturers should have to build things to be easy to take apart, to be replaceable or upgradeable, or anything else along those lines.
> Why not?
Because,
1) I personally don't care about this.
2) More important than 1, I don't think the law/government has any business deciding this. The market can decide (spoiler: it already has).
Nowadays I work in medical devices. It's nice because you're actually legally required to spend 5 minutes making sure your product does what you say it will before you're allowed to sell it, in contrast with what's happened to the rest of the industry.
> Purchasers and users of US made parts are obligated to sign a contract that prohibits them from trading with North Korea
This is some kind of fantasy? I can go to a million websites or into a store with cash and I can buy microchips for $0.08 without signing any contract. What's next, you are going to keep track of nuts and bolts?
>For most markets you just can't buy what you want. Even if you would be willing to pay 2 to 4 times.
This is a problem I see everywhere... People have no idea that mass production leads to order of magnitude reduction in costs or more.
In most products you buy today there is a 4X price range between low to high end products. When suddenly you're talking about 10-100X price range people go with why they can buy.
You'd think HNers would have a better idea on manufacturing costs.
> I feel that it's no longer about making quality products, but more about milking money by any means
Check out the Handmade online community [0] and/or attend one of our conferences [1] this year.
I’m biased because I’m the organizer for the conferences, but we genuinely share your line of thinking. Wouldn’t hurt to congregate with like-minded folks :)
>requiring this to be part of any table saw sold in the US, without paying SawStop any patent fees
I don't think you are for SawStop or their invention. Sorry, you don't get to cheat someone out of their work just because it's a good idea. It's pretty much the exact opposite of that.
> Haven't you noticed how all goods and services go to shit over the years?
No. I can't think of anything I buy that I would want to go back in time with. The quality in my experience has only improved, often dramatically. Those who try to skimp on quality get destroyed by the competition. What are you referring to?
The only thing I can think of that you might be referring to – based on what I hear other say, not based on my own buying habits – is things like appliances where manufacturers have really dug deep into computerization so that they can enjoy the same legal moats other tech companies do. But what you are experiencing there is the lack of competition we spoke of earlier.
Well, sounds like truly free trade.
No patents, no copyright, no BS.
If you can make it and sell it cheaper than someone else, you win (and people get it without artificial restrictions on its production).
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