Greetings, fellow ruminators, timber-trimmers, and cast-ahrn consumers. While following some links related to my day job, I came across a very nice explanation for the poor quality of woodworking tools and supplies. Despite its name, Moen's Law of Bicycles seems to hit the mark.
In my area, woodshops in schools are used only for adult education; the kids don't get to touch the stuff. These kids grow up, and either move out of the area or become engineers, marry someone in marketing, buy a newish, salmon-colored stucco home, and after a few too many hours watching TLC, set up a shop in the carhole.
There's nothing wrong with any of that, but it explains the selection of tools at the big box stores, and increasingly, even at less general-focus retail establishments.
This isn't merely a case of snootiness, as I'm just one of the bozos I described*, and I clearly don't get everything I could out of my BT3100, so I don't need a Powermatic 66. Yet.
Anyway, with that buildup, here's the link to Rick Moen's laws (don't miss Tactical Stupidity and Moen's Law of Inefficient Immolation). Reprinted without permission, below the link, is the bulk of the Law of Bicycles. See what you think.
Moen's Law of Bicycles
"Good customers make for good products". This is my explanation for why an ignorant customer base causes merchandise quality to decline, on account of unhealthy market dynamics, e.g., in retail computer hardware and software. In the mid-1970s, bicycles suddenly became very popular in the USA. The masses suddenly entered the market, few knowing anything about bicycles. Many could distinguish poorly if at all between good equipment and bad; good customer service and bad. Consequently, poorly made bicycles (which cost less to make) undercut well made ones (and poor customer service out-earned the good variety), because their superior value ceased to be perceived. Over time, overall quality of available bicycles declined considerably, almost entirely because of this dynamic with customers, recovering only after the fad ended, years later.
Quality thrives only when people can tell the difference. When they haven't a clue about products and how they work, schlock merchandise prevails. One can see this process at work in retail computing gear and software: People who know least about computing always insist most on achieving bottom dollar. In a way, this is understandable: You want to exercise control over the process, and, if you're dirt-ignorant about computing, the only place to exercise control is over price. Gradually, this effect tends to drive good merchandise out of the market entirely, leaving a generous selection of cheap crud.
*My house does have exterior stucco, but it's not a salmon hue. Instead, it's a nasty blue/gray, perhaps left over from the mothball fleet or one Keeter's router tables. The nasty gray/blue (mostly) covers nasty yellow, which is probably not the original paint color, either, based on the other homes in this late '50s subdivision. Oh, and I've only got basic cable, so no TLC, and unfortunately, also no Woodwright's Shop. The two local PBS stations seem to be too busy trying to help us throw "Idea Parties." Maybe some of us need a Clue Party.Ahem.