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   Ronnie Soak (chaos_99@fosstodon.org)'s status on Wednesday, 03-Jun-2026 22:34:38 JST Ronnie Soak

   • Thomas 🔭🕹️
   • Steve

   @thomasfuchs @scm

   That's quite the gist of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory

   Stupid poors, why don't they buy things that last longer?

   • Embed this notice
     Steve (scm@sfba.social)'s status on Wednesday, 03-Jun-2026 00:34:22 JST Steve

     in reply to

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @Chaos_99 @thomasfuchs That’s maybe a nicer model, but everything Thomas says is true about cheaper models (except the power) that nearly every household had. Families that could afford a “nice” car and TV typically had a “nice” stereo too. Spending the equivalent of €4000 is less painful when it’s something that will last decades. Some people spend that much on gaming computers every few years these days

   • Embed this notice
     Ronnie Soak (chaos_99@fosstodon.org)'s status on Wednesday, 03-Jun-2026 00:34:23 JST Ronnie Soak

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @thomasfuchs That must be an interesting definition of 'average consumer' then.

     From what I could find that had a price tag of 2200 DM 1978 in Germany. This would be around 3400 EUR in today's money.

     That's not the range an 'average customer' expects a radio receiver to be in these days.

     I get all the nostalgia and the visual/tactile feel and the engineering aspect and the durability. But only very few privileged people would have had those.

   • Embed this notice
     Steve (scm@sfba.social)'s status on Thursday, 04-Jun-2026 01:27:33 JST Steve

     in reply to

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @Chaos_99 @thomasfuchs Not at all. I was poor (lower middle class anyway), my first stereo was my mom’s old one that was probably at least 20 years old, and worked for years until I gave it away, still working

     It wasn’t as nice or expensive as Thomas’s, but it was built to last

     With products that last decades, you can buy used ones or get them for free from friends who get a new one, even if they were expensive new. They didn’t just get tossed out after a couple years like everything today, they were still being used by people who couldn’t afford new ones