GPW No worries at all. I love your rant and agree 100%. It extends beyond RVs. Houses, cars, furniture, food just about anything a person could buy. The whole system is a racket. Driving quarterly profits. It is hugely frustrating. There is not even one evil person or one group of evil people behind the drive. It is just a run away train built on decades of driving consumer purchases to grow share holder profits. We've all been fooled multiple times, the most talented psychologists go to work making commercials not curing mental illness. We're are inundated with commercials and ads specifically designed to cause us to attach our sense of self worth to our ability to purchase new and shiny things. We get a little emotional lift when we have something new but the feeling is replaced with dissatisfaction as soon as that thing is not new anymore.
Many things like RVS, Appliances, Furniture fail prematurely. I don't think they have fail dates built into the design, but I do think they have a minimal functional lifespans built into the design plan, then they meet that time line as cheaply as possible.
Of course these things are just on the surface, greed and power are so inherent in the global economy that it scares me, thoroughly, when I think about the manipulations and machinations going on of which I have little or no idea. We can only hope that there is enough good energy and positive productive people still in the world to counteract the bullshit. These things are beyond our control. The only way we can make a difference, for ourselves individually, and for ourselves as a group is by choosing not to participate. It works, mircro and macro, it works.
So lets build our own campers, our own cabinetry for our homes, our own greenhouses, our own chicken coops, lets do our own plumbing, carpentry, house maintenance, lets mow our own yard, lets live within our means, lets buy used beat up cars like toyota camrys and honda civics and cruiser buicks, they are almost free to own after a year or two. Lets have a savings account instead of a credit card.
Screw the man! I am a man! My own man. Don't be mad at the salesman, feel sorry for him and be glad you are no longer able to be exploited per his intention. Be free of him. Provide a better example and maybe one day he will follow and free himself.
I'm serious, peacefully, quietly, proudly, defiantly, productively, positively, all we can do is look to our own shores and do what we can within our scope. (At the RV show I was kind of a jerk, I kept talking down about the campers within earshot of the salespeople and their potential purchasers, not directly, I was talking to my wife, but I was doing it and I happen to talk loud, because I am a little "off")
Sorry for the rant. I feel resentful towards much of what I see for sale myself, and other things too.
Anyways, I'm glad I found the right site. I knew you guys were a good group.
Stumpy, Lefty and One Eye all agree: experience is the best teacher.