Yes, but I am tired of getting blamed. I feel like I don't have much choice. When the watch band on my Timex broke, I went to Target and bought a replacement band. They were $13. I made sure to sniff it to make sure it was real leather. Two weeks later, it crumbled and broke. On closer examination, the band was made of cardboard and impregnated with leather dust to fool the sniffers. In my defense, that was the only line of replacement bands that was in stock at Target. I was complaining about it in the company breakroom, and one of my coworkers, a woman from China, said that all good Chinese know how to buy the decent products. The fake stuff is there to fool ... and here she sneered at me .. stupid Americans like you. I told her, not any more. She said that I have no choice now; all replacement watch bands are made in China. I said, not this one, and I flashed the one I was wearing. She turned up her nose and said, where did you pick up that ugly thing? I said this is a special line of products not only made in the good ol' US, but even right here in Sunnyvale!Just wanted to double down on my appreciation for this statement. You're much more eloquent than me. But I think I share that sentiment. Nearly every time I read or watch people complaining about the thing they just bought, I can't help but wonder what they were hoping for at bottom dollar price. Even my wife will find some furniture she wants, and is constantly disappointed when I tell her it's garbage. I'm astounded at the blatantly cheap wood, ugly weak fasteners, complete absence of attractive and durable joinery, and overall light duty nature of all of it! But there's a factory somewhere churning this garbage out, and it's selling like hotcakes. New machine tools are dramatically better than this pervasive bargain home decor crap people are buying. But I don't blame the person selling it. I blame the people buying it.
It's just like when they say "OK, Boomer." To a large degree, although it was under their watch, boomers don't deserve all the blame. Many of the structural misfortunes that occurred during their generation was not due to their direct malfeasance. So, don't go too heavy on this "ok, Boomer" stuff.