Its a bit of a two edged sword. Walmart-ism democratized <i>stuff</i>.<p>Just before my grandfather died he gave me a circular saw he got in the late 50's. It cost him a months salary. Its a monster. 100% metal right down to the trigger you pull to switch it on. It works as well as the day it was made. Its a piece of fantastic quality engineering... that my grandfather couldn't afford until he was middle aged.<p>The existence of plastic throwaway circular saws at Home Depot is a good thing. It means that some people who would never have had them at all can now have one, albeit a poor one. The trouble is, it makes it harder to find a saw like my grandfather's when you decide that its what you want.<p>And it is what you want in the end. Carefully buying top quality things as you can afford them is brutal at the beginning, but as you build up a cache of high quality things, you can stop buying the cheap garbage over and over again and begin to enjoy the things you have, even as they <i>save</i> you money, time and hassle in the end.