Why did Soviet citizens buy things for a lifetime?

Uhhh… anyone who has ever driving in a Lada or a Niva can tell you they were not well-engineered machines. Quite the opposite!<p>Yes, it was possible to fix one with a hammer because well into the 1990’s they had barely any electronic components, but sit in one before you believe the truly bizarre take of this article.<p>Soviet consumer goods were _famously_ shitty. I don’t know what this writer is smoking. Not Soviet cigarettes for sure, since those also sucked.

The article is very interesting, but here&#x27;s a point not discussed in the article: an old refrigerator is terrible for the environment! Its energy efficiency is low, and it is dangerous for the ozone layer: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;environment&#x2F;2005&#x2F;dec&#x2F;08&#x2F;science.climatechange" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;environment&#x2F;2005&#x2F;dec&#x2F;08&#x2F;science....</a><p>That old car must not have a catalytic converter either, a godsend for our environment.<p>Keeping old things around is good for the environment. Keeping an old fridge and car from the 60s, I&#x27;m not so sure.

Hilarious propaganda, can only work on people who never interacted with Soviet products. Real reason is you could only afford to buy it once in your lifetime with soviet earnings.<p>&gt; But this longevity wasn’t just a matter of thrift. Soviet goods were more about quality than quantity.<p>hahahaha. Just one random example - Russian made Rubin 714 color TV had the tendency to overheat, catch fire or straight up blow up, and burn down whole apartment complexes. From the very same source as this PR piece comes: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rbth.com&#x2F;history&#x2F;329086-why-soviet-tv-was-dangerous" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rbth.com&#x2F;history&#x2F;329086-why-soviet-tv-was-danger...</a> It was so bad even official Paper controlled by central committee was allowed to write about it <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.latimes.com&#x2F;archives&#x2F;la-xpm-1987-02-01-me-580-story.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.latimes.com&#x2F;archives&#x2F;la-xpm-1987-02-01-me-580-st...</a><p>&quot;fires caused by defective color television sets that explode totaled 5,490 in 1985&quot;.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.globalsecurity.org&#x2F;military&#x2F;world&#x2F;russia&#x2F;tv.htm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.globalsecurity.org&#x2F;military&#x2F;world&#x2F;russia&#x2F;tv.htm</a><p>&quot;sixty percent of all apartment fires in Moscow are caused by mass-produced Soviet television sets, which had a tendency to explode. Of the 715 apartment fires in Moscow in November 1987, 90 were blamed on exploding television sets, a statistic the Soviet press viewed as an alarming commentary on Soviet technology.&quot;

rtbh.com (Russia Beyond) is a state-sponsored propaganda outfit. I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s appropriate on HN.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Russia_Beyond" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Russia_Beyond</a>

It&#x27;s a mindset, not a culture thing.<p>I tend to do things that same way. I have a philosophy of &quot;Buy twice as good. Buy half as many.&quot;<p>My cars I tend to buy new, but keep them for 12 years or more. The same with household appliances. Better ones last longer, and can be more economic to repair rather than replace.<p>My Miele dishwasher is approaching 16 years old. My Miele clothes-washer and heat-pump dryer I bought 12 years ago because I was so happy with my Miele dishwasher. All three have been repaired once during their lifetime but continue to work, and work well. Very likely they&#x27;ll see me out.

I wonder why queuing physically was so common. When scarcity is so widespread you’d expect that at least that part would be solved some other way (rationing, queue numbers, ..)<p>The impression you get from history books is that people were literally queuing for hours not only for perishable things, but also as in the article for things like fur coats. How did people find out where and when the queue started for a fur coat? If the store was about to get a delivery of fur coats, couldn’t they have a lottery instead of endless queues?

Production motivated by use value naturally tends towards durability and efficient use of resources, just like production motivated by exchange value (profit) naturally tends towards fragility and waste.

Sounds like survivorship bias and some sort of superiority over capitalism’s wastefulness hitpiece