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6 months agoI’m glad you’re seeing this because so few see what’s happening before their very eyes. It IS different from the moral panics of the past and it does go past “kids these days” The west hates and is hostile to it’s children. Even pets are treated much nicer.
“Buy 100% American made! That’ll ensure it’ll last forever!”
In all seriousness I’m not sure. Tons of things aren’t bifl and aren’t meant to be, they have a natural lifespan. The problem is that the natural lifespan in the US is cut unnecessarily short for such things because Walmart wants to keep selling you stuff.
You could try making your own clothes but it’s hard and time consuming to do that for everything. Having an economy divorced from production is unfortunately going to become even worse of a drag as time goes on. It’s why I’m sounding the alarm bells and begging all my friends and family to get off the sinking ship that is the west. They won’t listen, but I do it because I care, and maybe someone will listen.
I’m in China, and in Asia in general, people have access to affordable high quality tailors and fabrics. I’ve noticed products I’ve bought off of pinduoduo are better quality than products I’ve bought off temu, despite it being the same company. There’s also the fact that there is a lack of recourse when your seller is halfway across the world.
The thing is, you aren’t going to find many options for affordable stuff outside China, so I believe looking for labels like “American made”, and “Italian made” is not the answer. Chinese logistics, manufacturing, production, automation, quality… it’s pretty close to the best value in the world, even the cheapy things sold in the US. The only way you could do better is with actual real slave labor like in Bangladesh or India.
While I was in the US and doing my own research into all this was the best course of action for me was to basically buy the cheap Chinese good off of Amazon, tenu, wish, Shein, whatever and aggressively use the return policy if quality wasn’t up to snuff. Learn to look at stiching, fabric, and other markers of quality, never buy the cheapest thing from a Chinese retailer, a $3 tank top from Shein can be terrible but a.$30 dress can be amazing.
100% make sure to never pay the Walmart/target/bullshit markups, unless you absolutely need to assess the items quality in person and are willing to pay the premium to do so. If a cheap flimsy shirt that gets destroyed in a month is $3, pay the $3, don’t pay $30.
Once your clothes get worn through, learn to patch/darn/mend. Conspicuous mending can be beautiful and really cool.
And shop at thrift stores and see if you can snag something good.