Quality Control | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Today's society is bursting with new technology and modern innovations; the road to all of these new advances has been paved with a certain loss of quality. How have buildings and monuments from centuries ago, before building codes and new materials, still standing when buildings of today's day and age struggle to resist the tests of time? Anything that is of good worthy craftsmanship these days costs an arm and a leg. There used to be a certain sense of pride in products created, due to the craftsmanship that went into them. Now, the world is filled with cookie-cutter objects at every turn. People don't covet particleboard furniture or plain/ cheaply made clothes, products, homes or stores. There is still the desire to have unique objects and high quality items, but it has been made where only the rich and the few can obtain such items.

    When visiting historic downtown areas, the amount of detail that went into those buildings, inside and out is amazing. Not only is the quality something not seen much in newer downtown areas, but the variety and historical precedence is baffling. A lot of new construction consists of a metal shell, with some exterior finish but the inside can be hollow and the divided up, comparable to the concept of an "airplane hangar". There was an interesting project I had to do this summer for a class where this class of five students had to collaborate and create buildings for a downtown area using a historical style of architecture as our precedent. It was an interesting experience, it was the first project we had where we had a small commercial and residential building that we could design from the ground up once we bid for our lot size and location. By everyone having a different precedent to go by, it created an interesting city block and had a certain feel of tradition and class rather than having skyscrapers or plain facades. Even though these would be new buildings using the latest materials, it still illuminated with an essence of richness. Rather than trying to create a structure with a lasting effect, as they did centuries ago, buildings are constructed to save money, be repetitive and not necessarily making any statements; or when it does it's generally a modern metal and glass monstrosity. Residential houses have been suffering the same fate, especially with the downtrodden economy. Mobile homes and modular homes are taking the country by storm; which is good to save money and for first time owners, but that's about it. Not only have structures diminished in quality, furnishings inside them are not much better.

    Furniture is being made cheaper by the day due to being made wherever the lowest labor rates are as well as furniture that comes in a box to be assembled to increase profit for companies. Some furniture is made so terribly that it swells with any drop of water or readily breaks; even these inferior items can still be relatively expensive. For furniture that has been made by a craftsman or had any time put into it and not a product of an assembly line will be comparable to a house payment. Greed and economic troubles have diminished the sense of craftsmanship on a large scale. Even furniture covering, cabinetry, and everything else have been made to accommodate the pockets of big business. Why must quality suffer in order to make furnishings, and everything else for that matter, affordable? Clothing can be especially ridiculous as well. Just the other day I had to purchase some socks; one brand had a pack of six for five dollars and another had twice as many for eight dollars. When there's that much discrepancy in quantity, the brand and price directly reflects how well the product is made and if it will last longer than the supposedly better deal. Most clothes give the impression that if it's expensive and is of a certain brand it must be of good quality, and vice versa.

    There aren't many things in the world today that have not been affected by capitalistic corporations. So many companies are focused on squeezing every half of a cent that they can out of their products for profit, even if it means cutting corners on the actual product. If companies focused on what went into their products rather than what they can get away with to save money, then they would make more money due to people actually wanting to buy their well made products. This would result in a better economy and culturally improved society.