ignorance is bliss (a rant)

There are egads of people who don't give a hoot about anything but their wallets. You know them, the "we want to do the least/spend the least amount possible, just enough to get the house sold" types. You might be one of them. I might be one of them.
Problem is, this mentality has permeated every facet of american thinking. No one seems to give a rats you-know-what about doing something right for the sake of doing it right. How do we fix this?!?!? What has allowed generations of us to adopt this idea? The elderly folks I know made darn sure if their name went on it, it was done right. If it cost too much to do, then chose whether or not it could be done, never how cheap can I do this and make the biggest buck. Now everybody has this idea that we 'deserve' the lowest cost, and no one wants to know that the reason things are cheap and affordable is because they were made on the backs on impoverished peoples. And no one wants to know that the cheap alternative today will give your grand-kids a hell of a time breathing. Don't even bring it up, people don't want to hear how their ignorance is hurtful and sometimes deadly. Maybe this mindset has always been around, maybe somewhere in the 'advance' of humankind it just got easier to do. I loathe the easy button. Yeah, I'm probably a hypocrite. I probably make choices based on convenience and a 'go with the flow' want to keep life tolerable. I hope that I learn the right way though. I really do. And I hope I'm not alone.
I feel better now, thanks for reading. And feel free to pipe in. Or even to tell me where to stick it

edited for crappy spelling

Good post Bethany! As an example of ignorance, I will share a story. I just bought a house built in 1932, way out in the mountains, an old mining town, beautiful 2 story house. The previous owner has money, and rented the place out for about 8 years now. 3 years ago, there was a little water leaking through the basement wall, through a crack, in the spring. This area gets about 14 feet of snow/year, so between the homes is about 20 feet, with snow sliding off the metal roofs, making say a 12 foot wall between each. To stop the water leak, this guy paid someone to dig by hand about a 3 foot deep by 1 foot wide trench around, put in some drain rock, drain tile (perforated plastic pipe) and covered with more rock. The problem is, the landscaping needed to be redone, slope the ground from the house out, since it had settled enough to let the water run towards the house! He paid probably $600-$1000 for a guy to bust his butt hand digging,install pipe, truck in rock and I'm paying $250 for a backhoe to slope and level it properly, and actually solve the problem!!Not only was his cheapness not working, it would say in 2-3 years call for a new foundation....the cheap way out.... yea right.

Way to go Bethany; you go girl.
Glenn

The success of wal mart is a perfect example of this attitude. Why get a good VCR, microwave,bookshelf, etc. when I can buy a crappy one and then have money left over to buy several other crappy things, all of which will break in 6 months. That whole attitude is about more stuff. One small wellmade item? or 6 crappy ones? how much of that wal-martage goes in the landfills inside of a year? I reached a point some years ago where I hate to get anything that won't last. I would rather have one pair of $250 shoes or boots then 10 pairs of $25 ones. There certainly is a place for stuff that won't last, and for 1/2 or 1/4 *** repairs. but I allways think of the next guy and don't want them to be saying in 10 years "yeah someone sure did a mickey mouse job with this"

You get, what you pay for, It has never changed.
I will not use a chain store that sells garbage, that includes food and restaurants.

When you do not support those great little mom and pop places...they go to the wayside. Guess what your stuck with later.
Use that philosophy on your next purchase.
Way to go Bethany....see what you started!!