So what was it about the 70s that quality of everything went to pot?

[Dr. Tweedbucket]

Cars

Guitars

Amps

Home construction

TV

Furniture


.... was it that the drug kids of the 60s finally got jobs and started taking over?

:confused:

[Pfeister]

Easy answer already in the title:

Pot.

[rane008]

The pot got better?

[CharlyG]

I was gonna say everybody was high!

[PUCKBOY99]

Corporate greed.... government inefficiency.....personal greed.....loss of values...... :dunno

[HoboMan]

Corporate greed.... government inefficiency.....personal greed.....loss of values...... :dunno

And Pot.

[frmorales52]

Had nothing to do with the pot - or any other kind of drug and it didn't have anything to do wit hthe government either. It had to do with greed - pure and simple. The same thing that always ruins things in the Good Old USA.
All the cool companies were taken over and managed by bean counters who only cared about maximizing short term profits.
Quality went down the tubes and a few people gor richer - for a short period of time anyway.

[DWB1960]

The 80s killed the 70s.

Muz1OcEzJOs

[Baloney]

Lazy americans who had no pride in their work!!!!!

And Disco

[davecan]

CBS?

[Eskimo_Joe]

well, the 60's kind of blew up social mores right? the 70's are a product of what started in the 60's

[Pfeister]

I can already tell this is going to be like hearing every old man rant from my parents' generation at one time.

Hey guys, what do you think about rap music?

:munch

[DGDGBD]

The economy tightened, inflation, oil crisis, corporate and union greed; plus everyone was stoned and wearing bad clothes.

[Pedal Dan]

Maxon pedals.

[Clumsy Fingers]

I ca already tell this is going to be like hearing every old man rant from my parents' generation at one time.

Hey guys, what do you think about rap music?

:munch






Yeah, things were always better in the good old days.

[pete692]

Rising energy costs, rising labor costs. More "efficiency" in the factories usually meant less skilled labor making more things with cheaper raw materials in less time.

[Blue Light]

The rise of corporate power, which took over from -- what? -- entrepreneurial power. For example -- and this is just blind prejudice talking here -- automotive geniuses built Detroit, but in the Sixties it seemed that the car companies were taken over by marketing guys, and a certain kind of corporate bean counter.
I know a small factory owner who calls it the MBA Syndrome.

No offense to all the MBAs in the room!

What we saw in the 1970s was the result of a kind of rampant bean-counterism.

Of course, that still doesn't explain mutton-chop sideburns and ultra-wide neckties.

[Peteyvee]

I can already tell this is going to be like hearing every old man rant from my parents' generation at one time.

Hey guys, what do you think about rap music?

:munch

I like these guys a lot better! As an added bonus, they dressed better than most rappers too!

http://i809.photobucket.com/albums/zz18/peteyvee/GCBC.jpg

Seriously, I think it was the change over from tube amps to solid state. Tone just went to hell by the end of the decade...oh and the pot had nothing to do with it. :cool:

[Virtual Pariah]

I think it was the addition of automation to a lot of production lines.

Not that automation was bad per se, but I don't believe that the machines were quite ready for the tasks they were being used for. Also doesn't help that the machines were misused as mgt thought they were a cure all for multiple problems.

[Peteyvee]

I think it was the addition of automation to a lot of production lines.

Not that automation was bad per se, but I don't believe that the machines were quite ready for the tasks they were being used for. Also doesn't help that the machines were misused as mgt thought they were a cure all for multiple problems.

Like I said, tubes to solid state...:)

[gtone]

Wasn't the pot - stuff's way stronger now! Prolly the 'ludes...


Some things are way, way better now - just think real hard on that and you'll see that the "good old days" weren't all that good in many ways. No old guy rant here...

[MSLBend]

The quality of music was fantastic. Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Van Halen and many, many others. The quality of recording technology grew leaps and bounds.

[Virtual Pariah]

Like I said, tubes to solid state...:)


Pretty much a perfect analogy.

[Jay Mitchell]

http://chrisabraham.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/1-amc-pacer.jpg

'Nuff said.

[korby]

20% interest mortgages and balloon payments .

[Blue Light]

Mitchell, you're too cruel.

I guess that car is case study for a certain design school called "Straining to the Hip"

[drgonzoguitar]

Lazy americans who had no pride in their work!!!!!

And Disco

Silly rabbit, pride just gets your job outsourced.
:cool:

[silky_sam]

The Beatles had broken up.....things haven't been the same since

[Wuchak]

In the 1970's we made better bell bottoms and polyester leisure suits than we ever did before or since.

[Bob Maximus]

std's?

[Grun]

Well, with cars it was early emission systems. With everything else seems like the cost of materials must have gone up or something. You also had OPEC flexing their muscles. Loss of the Vietnam war? I would agree that the quality of just about everything truly sucked especially in the early/mid 70's. Most likely due to the influence of a variety of factors.

[mudster]

Had nothing to do with the pot - or any other kind of drug and it didn't have anything to do wit hthe government either. It had to do with greed - pure and simple. The same thing that always ruins things in the Good Old USA.
All the cool companies were taken over and managed by bean counters who only cared about maximizing short term profits.
Quality went down the tubes and a few people gor richer - for a short period of time anyway.

What he said.

[phoenix 7]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f7/Disco_duck.jpg/220px-Disco_duck.jpg (http://www.thegearpage.net/wiki/File:Disco_duck.jpg)

[CharlyG]

Maui Wowie and Kona Gold (at least in CA)

[Blue Light]

Cars....Guitars....Amps....Home construction....TV....Furniture....

Furniture? What so bad about '70s furniture? Don't know what you're talking about....

http://www.soldsmart.com.au/dimage.aspx?id=2566

[CharlyG]

hmm, I don't recall that piece!!!!

[Baxtercat]

Had nothing to do with the pot - or any other kind of drug and it didn't have anything to do wit hthe government either. It had to do with greed - pure and simple. The same thing that always ruins things in the Good Old USA.
All the cool companies were taken over and managed by bean counters who only cared about maximizing short term profits.
Quality went down the tubes and a few people gor richer - for a short period of time anyway.
Yes, as was said last time this cliche theory showed up here, the suits were running CBS/AMF/Norlin/etc. The hippies weren't running things, dudes.

Think it was bad then, wait a few more years. I just read the top 1% here take in 25% of the country's income.

[phoenix 7]

Think it was bad then, wait a few more years. I just read the top 1% here take in 25% of the country's income.

Yes, but they're doing such a great job running things. Just look at our financial, real estate, and health insurance industries.

[re-animator]

you need to ask the real question... what went wrong with the sperm of the 50s and 60s?

[Vince]

you need to ask the real question... what went wrong with the sperm of the 50s and 60s?

Best reply ever.

[outlawyer]

Apparently somebody needs to tell the sellers of their 70's era guitars that they are asking way too much for them, cause they suck.

[xk49w]

Gummi Bears - life ended.

[EADGBE]

I'm not convinced everything in the 70s was bad. There was a recession. And lots of inflation. But the music was good.

[bluesjuke]

Apparently somebody needs to tell the sellers of their 70's era guitars that they are asking way too much for them, cause they suck.



A Wannabe Vintage Era.

[tonedaddy]

The simplification that only one group is responsible for negative outcomes is absurd.

There's plenty of blame to share among investors/management/labor/customers.
As it usually is, no matter what decade/mess we find ourselves in.

[Hacksaw]

It all due to exposure to asbestos and eating lead paint!

[Blue Light]

The OP has a point. Style-wise, the '70s were an all-round catastrophe.
You got yer leisure suit, Ralph?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_TlgOYw_anFY/SyrEiROKq6I/AAAAAAAABKw/wd3XsShBDx4/s320/h3a.jpg


But there were some fun things about the decade. Until AIDS came along and ruined everything at the end of the decade, it was one hell a time for promiscuity. I was sure celebratin' it.

Maybe the most serious culprit of that period hasn't been named: Cocaine.
It just turned the smartest people into nose-wiping dolts. Gaudiness reigned.

The economy was uneven -- but it's always rough after a war. The world took a long while to recover from WW2. Right now we're still in economic shock from the the trillion-dollar Iraq war. Vietnam left us with a terrible economic hangover -- compounded by the oil-price shocks of the '70s.

There was kind of a funny anarchy in the country through the '70s, a floating kind of adventurousness. I remember the inflation rate got near 20% at some point, and it just seemed like you were never going to get ahead.
So people dealt with it.

It didn't feel real bad, I don't think, till late 1979 when the Iranian students took all those Americans hostage. The American TV networks did a terrible thing and essentially played into the terrorists' hands by giving them ENDLESS TV time. I don't think we should discuss this issue beyond that because there would be a lot of disagreement. But it did happen, and the idle merriment of the '70s came to a close real hard.

Yeah, style wasteland, sure. But there was also a lengthy period of sultry amusements....

[hellbender]

When we switched from a local based economy to a corporate based economy.

[korby]

you need to ask the real question... what went wrong with the sperm of the 50s and 60s?

Bourbon , chain smoking , fallout from nuclear bomb tests .

[smcgov]

CBS?

They owned the Yankees before King George and they ruined them too....actually corporate greed and complancency

[Gas-man]

I just read the top 1% here take in 25% of the country's income.


The old Zero Sum Game theory.

[Dr. Tweedbucket]

I'm not convinced everything in the 70s was bad. ... the music was good.


until about 75, and then it just went to crap (excluding Zeppelin) ... and no wonder they started doing a lot of drugs ... they probably looked around and said, hey man, are we doing something wrong?! :huh

[TommyMambo]

My take is that it had alot to do with the big conglomerates gobbling up the smaller manufacturers.

CBS bought Fender
AMF bought Harley Davidson (and alot of others, including many boat builders)
Norlin bought Gibson
It all became about the bottom line vs. quality.

[alberob]

The best thing about the past is that it's over.All decades have good and bad.You have 2 choices be an optimist or be a pessimist.For me the glass is half full.

[Big_Daddy]

you need to ask the real question... what went wrong with the sperm of the 50s and 60s?


Answer?

L-S-D. :p

[Wuchak]

When we switched from a local based economy to a corporate based economy.

That took place about 1890

[bluesjuke]

you need to ask the real question... what went wrong with the sperm of the 50s and 60s?



Sure it wasn't the egg?

[MSLBend]

When we switched from a local based economy to a corporate based economy.

Local to corporate to global

as a result of massively increasing money supply, going off the gold standard and hiding real inflation with global competition. The push for cheaper and cheaper over the last 4 decades is simply how we've hidden inflation. It's called getting less for more. If you just look at gold and oil, probably the two best benchmarks for tracking inflation, a serious case could be made that since 1970, real inflation is over 3,000%. So how do you deal with that? Lower quality, generally ... products with less expensive materials, cheaper labor ... all leading to increased concentrations of wealth seeking cheaper and cheaper production methods. Obviously, there are some positive implications of this as well.

The real money gets made at the transaction level through financing schemes as the dirty work of actually making stuff gets shifted to those willing to work for less.

[Wuchak]

Drugs. It was a time of massive drug intake at all societal levels. From LSD to diet pills (Mother's little helper) to ludes to cocaine to pot. Lots and lots of drugs which lead to the serious impairment of rational decision making ability. Just look at the clothes people were wearing, the cars they drove, and the tv shows they watched.

[A-Bone]

The best thing about the past is that it's over.All decades have good and bad.You have 2 choices be an optimist or be a pessimist.For me the glass is half full.

Or maybe the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

[Jay Mitchell]

An optimist believes this is the best of all possible worlds. A pessimist is afraid the optimist may be right.

[daddyo]

I read somewhere that it was then, in the late 60s/early 70s, that young MBAs (a new concept then) started running companies with a focus on quarterly profits as opposed to long term growth. Make a quality cut, pick up a quick 5% on the bottom line, get a bigger bonus, get promoted. Sounds familiar?

It is not a rant - quality took a nose dive from around 72 on right through the 80s. Look at cars - the cars they made from 72 on for the next 20+ years were absolute crap. The cars in the 60s, while primitive by today's standards, where well built. I'm old enough to have witnessed the steady decline of everything from cars to power tools. Then Japan had an easy time beating NorAm with their focus on quality.

[davess23]

The quality of a lot of stuff is still going down the shitter. The race to the bottom has been steadily cheapening everything from dental floss to home construction.

Guess I'm just old and in the way. When I buy something, I'm foolish enough to expect it to work, to fulfill the function for which it was purchased. Unfortunately so much of the stuff I've gotten stuck with lately features flimsy construction, use of crap plastic or cheap base metals, under-engineered specifications, poor design, and corner-cutting in every possible aspect of manufacturing.

Instead of taking pride in a good product and satisfied customers, companies today are motivated by the need to remain competitive with all the other cheap shit that dominates the consumer marketplace and to show short-term profitability to their shareholders.

If this doesn't change-- and I doubt it will, anytime soon-- we're well and truly screwed. I really don't care about the shareholders; I'm far more interested in knowing that my bootlaces aren't going to break if I pull them tight enough to snug up my hiking boots.

I hate cheap shit.

[Teleplayer]

Man, I remember how badly the cars were made. Rustbuckets after 2 or 3 years. Windows that rattled 5 minutes after pulling the car off the lot. Paint jobs that started flaking off after a couple years. Planned obsolescence meant 2 years in the 70s. What a pile of junk Detroit was manufacturing.

Can you say Cordoba? Can you say Corinthian leather? Can you say Cadillac 8/6/4 engines. Man what a steaming turd that whole Detroit mess was. Yikes!

Oh yeah; don't forget flock wallpaper and gold shag carpeting. Beautiful.

10 pound pancake Les Pauls. YUM!!! 9 pound Strats and Teles with micro-tilt necks and ice-pick-in-the-eye tone. Yay!!!!!

How could anybody think that ANY of that crap was a step in the right direction????

Don't even get me started about the vast amounts of polyester showing up in everything clothing-related. YUCK!!!

[MVrider]

But people bought it... every bit of it...

[axiology]

Guitars? Amps?

Better and more affordable now than ever!!

[ChopsJackson]

women joined the workforce

[ChopsJackson]

Oh yeah; don't forget flock wallpaper and gold shag carpeting. Beautiful.



stainless steel filled kitchens will be laughed at in ten years

it's all a cycle

nobody ever thought shaggy hair and brown and orange clothes from the 70's would come back, but look in an old navy or any other young folks store.

[Travst]

The influx of decent quality cheap goods from overseas, and the US companies having no real plan to compete with foreign goods.

[DC1]

Cranio-rectal inversion, part of the hangover from the previous decade...

"It appears that the great sacred cow of our culture, the self, may not automatically be interesting"

-Robert Hughes "The Shock of the New"


dc