Durability

In the past, everything was about durability. People expected a piece of furniture or even a good jacket to be passed on to the next generation. As the quality of products improved, the size of the market was limited.

Once everyone had everything they needed, there was no one to sell it to, and businesses would begin to close, leaving people with less work. This happened around the 1920s. The solution was, and still is, to shift the focus to the service side of things.

A contemporary example would be a $5000 cell phone that sells for $1, but must be contracted for $1,0000. Leasing is another example. A more nefarious strategy, however, is to manufacture products of increasingly poor quality to make them cheaper. This creates a constant, steady demand because when something breaks, you throw it away and get a new one.

Thus, "finding the good stuff" becomes somewhat of a challenge. Good things can be found by utilizing survivor bias. As we have been told, the good stuff is the stuff that costs more than $100 in a pawn store or antique store.