as i have got older, i have noticed more and more how ready people are these days to slate a project, its very easy to pick holes in other people's work especially with the internet opening ideas up to the whole world.
but i don't see many people actually starting new things, in fact i think there are less people starting new projects because they are afraid of what people will say. I don't bother to make my projects public anymore because of how people react, especially people who couldn't even begin to understand how it all works.
with china undercutting labor costs, people assume that labor is free, they calculate the cost of parts it takes to make something and disregard the R and D costs, and assembly costs, and the intellectual value of the original idea. That kind of thinking leads to companies producing quantity not quality. everywhere you look there is cheap crap for sale, and as soon as something well built comes along people complain about its price.
I totally agree with this. This business model is not only unsustainable; but it's Western elitist and is ruining lives. I actually get annoyed whenever I see things on ridiculous sales now; when I see a piece of clothing selling for $5 or less at Wal-mart all that means to me is that somehow they're managing to get labour cheap enough that even with costs of materials AND shipping they're STILL making a profit on it. It's the fair-trade coffee thing all over again. I've started trying to buy locally as much as I can; even though it's more expensive at least I know where it's coming from.
TL;DR: Expecting stuff to be really cheap is causing sweat-shop labour.
