A recommendation of one is not how you should buy anything. The best pods are https://www.amazon.com/Members-Mark-Dishwasher-Ultimate-Clean/dp/B0B88XB3Y5/ according to the last Consumer Reports test I saw, and save for a long COVID supply dry spell, they are my go to. They are amazingly cheap. And if you want to go way deep on this topic: https://www.youtube.com/@TechnologyConnections/search?query=dishwasher

when it comes to laptops there is obviously no such thing as BIFL but I have 3 recommendations.
1: Framework, they are relatively new, but they already have a pretty good reputation and the entire product is designed to be self repairable and not become Ewaste, you could spec a pretty nice one well under budget.

2: Get the best MacBook you can, and hope it survives as long as your current one, the M2 models are blazing fast and as long as it doesn't have some sort of failure it should still run fine in 10 years. The big catch is that if anything does go wrong you're better off chucking it in the bin because they are designed to be near impossible to repair.

3: save some money and get a lightly used ThinkPad from a business liquidation, they run forever can be had affordably, and replacement parts are readily available just about anywhere, with the money left over you could even build a desktop that could last even longer than 10 years.

The one I have is energy efficient and additionally only uses 700W on the lowest setting.

How can they be a lot more efficient? They’re still just a resistive heater.

They even rehab old coats that are in need of some TLC. A good friend of mine works for them and says a lot of the employees get really geeked when they can check out a vintage coat. I inherited my dad’s jacket that he bought in the early 80’s and wore every day in the winter. I like it so much I bought a brand new version so I didn’t have to worry about accidentally trashing my dad’s coat crawling under a tractor or something and it’s every bit the same quality coat they were making back then. My friend also says Carhartt really takes care of their employees, so I feel doubly good about supporting a good company that makes good products. 5/5 stars definitely recommend

Respectfully, I’m not sure if “uses less power” is correct. A 1500W oil filled radiator will use exactly the same amount of power as any other kind of space heater with a 1500W rating if both are run for the same period of time. That’s precisely what the rating indicates.

Their website lets you sort by warmth and desired usage. If you can find a Carhartt store nearby they’re great.

UX-10 is definitely a bit premium, but for a 1-knife collection i thought it would be appropriate to spend a little more!

i do like my Toji DP 210 Gyu. Unexpectedly good finish for such an affordable knife.

This is my most recent purchase for using in a pro kitchen. Really nice knife. A bit overpriced. Still recommend tojiro over this for durability and price.

I've managed to keep mine for a few years now, but they are rusty husks. Not much left of them, this will be their final winter.

I meant the lack of competition wasn’t the problem. It was more about prioritizing resources.

Nice, I still have mine too, but it's beginning to rust on the very bottom.

I have a couple that I have used in a pro kitchen for 15 years

I'm talking about USSR products. In the USSR, there was genuinely no competition. No branding. Literally whatever your local factory churned out.

USA: Tyson, Purdue, oscar meyer, store brand chicken, etc. available nationwide

USSR: generic chicken minced meat.

Might not be as popular due to the price. I can't say I miss the hundred bucks given how excellent the knife continues to be.

It's not like consumer goods manufacturers are making insane margins. Single digit operating profit is pretty normal in that industry.

The question is just "do consumers want to pay more for quality," and the answer is virtually always "not really."

The bulletproof appliances at your grandparents' house cost a FORTUNE back then compared to what people earned: https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/appliance-shopping-1959-vs-2012/

The cost of a washer/dryer set in 1959 represented 181.8 hours of work at the average hourly wage.

A washer/dryer set in 2012 represented 31 hours of work at the average hourly wage.

The newer model might only last 5-10 years instead of a lifetime. But businesses realized that that's fine for most consumers. Maybe even preferable - "I'll move before then; I don't want to pay extra so the next owner doesn't have to buy a washer and dryer."

It definitely takes longer but stays warmer so much longer, uses less power, is safer, quieter, and does a much better job of evenly heating up the space. I just got one a couple months ago and it’s leagues better than a fan heater. It’s -40C near me right now and this thing heats up my room on the lowest setting.

Yes, it is.

There's just a lot of people here who don't know what they are talking about pretending to be experts.

Not much, particularly with the knives from those links. I don't really do anything for mine other than dry them right after use and wash them right after cutting something like lemon or onion. I'll occasionally use some barkeeper's friend to shine them up, usually when I sharpen them, and then give them some oil. That's about it. There's no rust, not even much patina after a year of daily use. The first carbon steel knife I had was more sensitive, it got discolored in just a few minutes after cutting an onion, but bk's friend easily removed that.

Surely you have read this sub enough to know that’s not true.

Not really. You either buy commercial or you can find which particular brands are fine.

High price doesn't necessarily mean high quality, but low price is a guarantee of low quality.

I wouldn’t say “without issue.” You have to hack your way through mounds of junk and a high price is no guarantee of quality.

Not because there was no competition. There’s plenty of competition for the crap we are surrounded by today, always 50 different brands of everything.

Planned obsolescence isn't a thing.

Source: am engineer.

To answer your question, they made junk because there wasn't any incentive to make anything good: the economy was closed. You couldn't import anything, so there was no competition. If there were only two TV makers, and no one got fired or lost their jobs because one TV was worse than the other, well it's just a race to the bottom to make it as shitty as possible.

I've used soviet-era stuff. My family lived with it for decades. It was garbage. It's not a coincidence it disappeared or broke shortly after everything opened up.

No, that happened after the break up of the USSR. He didn’t become president for about 9 years.