When labor was first being mechanized on a widespread scale in the 18th century, people complained that water-powered mills were replacing age-old traditions of human labor. When steam replaced water, the complaint was that the dignity and quaint beauty of the old labor was being crowded out by this ugly new trend.

When assembly-line labor came along, those same cottage industries were transformed in popular perception into an Eden from which humanity was falling. Machine tooling, electrification, automation each made what it replaced seem somehow noble and virtuous. Now we complain, believe it or not, about the lost dignity of factory labor — the same factory labor that we once bitterly asserted was the final degradation of the human spirit.

It seems we just can't win, no matter what we do.

The truth of the matter is that skilled labor of any sort, be it manufacturing or engineering, is always rewarding, and unskilled labor, which is what most people did in the halcyon ages past to which we apparently long to return — unskilled labor really sucks.

As often as not, the actual people doing this work upon which we look back with such nostalgia hated it and worked their fannies off in order to make sure that their children wouldn't have to. That alone should tell us something about the beauty and appeal of the lost arts whose passing those of us who have never practiced them bemoan.

When we moved from manual labor to mechanical labor, a new generation of mechanics arose. When we moved to automation, people became engineers. When we computerized, people went into programming and robotics. These were progressions that people looked on with some measure of satisfaction.

The logical next step, in an age of CAD, cybernetics, and ultra-high-precision manufacture, is for the new generation of workers to be designers. We could return to fragmented, impromptu systems of manufacture if that's what we prefer, in which each person makes their own stuff to nearly arbitrary degrees of durability and, if others like it, knock off as many more as demand requires. The tools at our disposal now make that possible in a way that ought to make heirloom lifestyle geeks squee with joy.

And yet, so impoverished is our imagination, and our education, that all we can do is sullenly demand the return of a squalid, fluorescent-lit form of labor whose only redeeming virtue was that it doesn't tax our minds.

You all are like neanderthals, refusing to evolve and shaking your animal bone in angry incomprehension at the faces of the new people with slings and axes. This could be an episode of "Charlie the Australopithecine."

This is not really a new problem. I've read previously about the Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel effect on furniture. Short version - good looking furniture used to be very $$$$$, cheap stuff was very ugly. The mass market stores changed that (from a relative cost for style point of view).

Part of the problem is the hourglass marketing strategy. Low end cheap stuff, high end expensive stuff, very little good value decent quality stuff in the middle. Companies prefer high profit margins on their products. The hourglass strategy is designed to maximize margin. There a few low end washers and dryers, and then boom you're into the pricey front loader sets. Not much in between these days.

As others, and the article, note - I'd like very nice furniture to last a lifetime. For the most part I have it. But the quarter-sawn Amish solid oak book case cost me $500 on sale, 10 years ago. My solid wood kiln dried frame, leather couch cost me $2000, on sale, 11 years ago. I'll have them forever but the upfront outlay was large and I did the piece at a time as I could afford it, it was years before I had a dining room table. I've picked up many a great piece of furniture at garage sales. It's amazing what some paint or refinishing will do for an old piece of furniture.

Eventually I'm going to need new kitchen cabinets (old suburban tract home) - but I don't have $20K or more. For wall mounted boxes with doors!!!. Truly - how expensive is it to make a box with a door? So I am looking at Ikea. The kitchen needs a new sink but finding a sink that meets my needs puts me into the "designer" category and I'm not paying $1000 for a sink. I can buy a steel sink for a couple of hundred at Home Depot but it'd be as frustrating as what I have now. Why bother?

The middle is missing. That intersection of quality and price called good value. It's either cheap and mostly crappy, or expensive and still sometimes crappy. Your odds are better of quality with a higher price, but by no means guaranteed.

If you browse the local antiques mall, Craigslist, Goodwill and Salvation Army stores, you will eventually find some usable used stuff that is far superior to IKEA merchandise and at reasonable prices. If you buy from a charitable organization, you are helping the less fortunate at the same time you are doing the environmentally responsible thing, as buying used means no additional resources were used to furnish your place. You may have to refinish, repair or repaint the furniture, but it is gratifying in the end. Reupholstering existing furniture is also a green thing to do, though it can be costly to pay for.

"Yeah, I'm sure Wal Mart was GREAT for Levi's

Just like how they catapulted Vlassic Pickles into super profit:

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html

I just don't know whether Wal Mart is but a symptom or a major cause of the downfall of the American manufacturing economy."

And Wal Mart pushed Huffy Bikes in bankruptcy. Huffy used to produce bikes in the US at a profit. They ended up moving production overseas to meet Wal Marts demands to lower prices every year.

http://books.google.com/books?id=JHUA5FcKKzUC&pg=PA144&lpg=PA144&dq=huffy+bikes+wal-mart&source=bl&ots=jDig3t38n3&sig=fk4Aj6ag8DxHsSvgN-vN7oDzHcY&hl=en&ei=p-1ZSqDCJ5uJtgfk0cjdCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9