**I Bought And Restored "Old" Technology To Prove The Economy Is Imploding | FIXATED — Transcript & Summary | SozAI**
Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/bought-restored-old-technology-economy-imploding/

Quincy Sandbank restores old tech to reveal how planned obsolescence and profit motives degrade product quality, reflecting a failing economy.

## Key Takeaways

- Modern products are intentionally designed to degrade, prioritizing profit over quality.
- Planned obsolescence and subscription models reflect deeper economic dysfunction.
- Older technology exemplifies superior durability and engineering.
- 'Inshitification' describes the widespread degradation of goods and services for profit.
- Economic and regulatory reforms are needed to reverse these trends and restore product quality.

## What the video covers

- The video explores how engineers once prioritized quality and longevity, but modern products prioritize shareholder profits over durability.
- Quincy Sandbank restores a vintage Mercedes to demonstrate the superior build quality and longevity of older technology.
- The concept of planned obsolescence is explained as a deliberate design to make products fail to drive repeat purchases.
- The video discusses 'inshitification,' a term coined by Cory Doctorow, describing how products and services degrade for profit without lowering prices.
- Modern digital platforms and services often start strong but degrade features and increase prices once they dominate the market.
- The degradation of products is linked to broader economic dysfunction, where innovation stalls and companies extract more profit from existing goods.
- Historical examples like the 1924 light bulb cartel illustrate early planned obsolescence efforts to reduce product lifespan.
- The video contrasts the durability and engineering excellence of older products with the disposable, subscription-based nature of modern goods.
- It highlights how monopolies and conglomerates reduce competition, leading to lower quality and higher prices despite fewer choices.
- The video calls for smarter laws and systemic changes to address the economic and social issues caused by declining product quality.

## Chapters

1. 00:00 Introduction: Decline of Product Quality and Corporate Priorities
2. 03:43 Cory Doctorow and the Concept of Inshitification
3. 07:13 Defining Inshitification Beyond Digital Platforms
4. 10:36 Historical Examples of Planned Obsolescence
5. 17:10 Modern Subscription Models and Economic Impact
6. 23:47 Restoring the Vintage Mercedes: Engineering Excellence
7. 35:55 Systemic Causes and the Role of Monopolies
8. 47:24 Conclusion: Need for Smarter Laws and Economic Reform

Answers

## Questions about this video

What is planned obsolescence and how does it affect consumers?

Planned obsolescence is the deliberate design of products to fail after a certain period, forcing consumers to buy replacements more frequently, which benefits companies financially but harms consumers.

What does 'inshitification' mean in the context of this video?

'Inshitification,' a term from Cory Doctorow, describes the process where products or services degrade in quality or features purely to increase profits, without reducing prices.

Why does the video use a vintage Mercedes to illustrate its points?

The vintage Mercedes exemplifies superior engineering and durability, showing how products used to be built to last, contrasting sharply with modern disposable goods.

## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:00

Speaker A

They don't make them like they used to. It is actually quite true. See, engineers used to be the big dogs in the corporate world, but now they're just as beholden to the shareholders as the rest of us. Quality and longevity have become afterthoughts in the shadow of profitability.

00:13

Speaker A

afterthoughts in the shadow of profitability. Oh, thank you. Before I was even born, there was a time when products were built to last.

00:21

Speaker A

Oh, thank you. Before I was even born, there was a time when products were built to last.

00:28

Speaker A

Whether it be from planned obsolescence or even [music] worse, a subscription. See, all of this has to do with our increasingly dysfunctional economy. And I can prove it. [music] This hunk of German engineering is twice my age and 10 times the swagger. And

00:42

Speaker A

A KitchenAid will last through the years. But that way of life is now dead.

00:55

Speaker A

could be today. because they were. Not only is it practically [music] immune to time, but it feels like it, too. With a trunk that's spacious enough for your mother, [music] an aerodynamic design all over, including ribbed for my

01:08

Speaker A

Whether it be from planned obsolescence or even worse, a subscription. See, all of this has to do with our increasingly dysfunctional economy. And I can prove it.

01:23

Speaker A

more durable than practically any modern work truck, and the bank vault [music] doors are straight out of the Federal Reserve. Pair all of this with a legendary bulletproof, silky smooth [music] inline six-cylinder engine that is more or less guaranteed for 500,000

01:38

Speaker A

This hunk of German engineering is twice my age and 10 times the swagger. And it's the physical manifestation of quality. In fact, it was too good. So much so that it made not just Mercedes, but the entire economy rethink how products should be made. And not in a good way. This car shows how good things could be today because they were.

01:51

Speaker A

put your grandchildren into indentured slavery. So then the question isn't just how much shittier things are going to get. It's what happens to the economy [music] when things can't get any shittier. Let's back up.

02:05

Speaker A

Not only is it practically immune to time, but it feels like it, too. With a trunk that's spacious enough for your mother, an aerodynamic design all over, including ribbed-for-my-pleasure tail lights that result in a coefficient of drag that is less than that of a Porsche 918 Spider.

02:30

Speaker A

No, no, not that. I mean, yes, that. But I'm talking about the products and services that you and I buy every day.

02:38

Speaker A

The first ever implementation of rear multi-link suspension in a production car gives this Mercedes silky smooth handling. The interior is more durable than practically any modern work truck, and the bank vault doors are straight out of the Federal Reserve.

02:53

Speaker A

products [music] costs more. So, companies don't do that as much as they used to. But that begs the question, why did things used to be nice?

03:00

Speaker A

Pair all of this with a legendary bulletproof, silky smooth inline six-cylinder engine that is more or less guaranteed for 500,000 miles, and you don't just get a car, you get a lifelong investment.

03:15

Speaker A

It's not just cuz it's a Ryobi. You already know about planned obsolescence. The idea that a product should be designed to fail to drive the consumer to well consume more once the product reaches its [music] preconceived demise, which is quite good for the economy and

03:29

Speaker A

Compare all of this to a contemporary vehicle that has a dashboard made out of recycled Nerf guns and enough zeros at the end of its price tag to put your grandchildren into indentured slavery.

03:43

Speaker A

coined by a guy called Cory Dotoro to describe how digital platforms like Uber would start off with a strong value proposition, but would subsequently regress its features and increase its price once the platform acquired enough users to hold them hostage, which is a

03:58

Speaker A

So then the question isn't just how much shittier things are going to get. It's what happens to the economy when things can't get any shittier. Let's back up.

04:16

Speaker A

for the explicit and sole sake of profit. Or to put it bluntly, making something worse without making it cheaper. [music] There are plenty of instances where a good or service has its features or materials removed that don't fall under the guise of

04:28

Speaker A

I meant back up in time to before I bought the car. You might have noticed that things are getting worse.

04:41

Speaker A

industrial revolution 200 years ago, which by the way was not that long ago, people often live to 100. So this is only two people ago. Anyways, technology has played an exponentially more important role in the economy ever since. [music]

04:55

Speaker A

No, no, not that. I mean, yes, that. But I'm talking about the products and services that you and I buy every day.

05:09

Speaker A

way to make labor more effective is to aid [music] it with technology. Whether it be a hammer to make building tables easier or a complex assembly line making it possible to create the same pair of shoes a thousand times over. Something

05:21

Speaker A

They're not horribly worse, and it isn't happening that quickly. But it is happening, and it will continue to get much worse unless something big changes. But why?

05:35

Speaker A

example, planned obsolescence as a concept could only ever exist with highly advanced technologies since it requires replicable precision. If you want to make sure your consumers have to come back every 5 years for a new pair of shoes, that would be really hard to

05:48

Speaker A

Before researching this video, I thought this was all as simple as the fact that making better products costs more. So, companies don't do that as much as they used to. But that begs the question, why did things used to be nice?

06:00

Speaker A

quality of those shoes to make them consistently mid enough to require repeat purchases [music] through a process of assembly line manufacturing?

06:08

Speaker A

It's not like technology is regressing or engineers are getting dumber. If anything, humanity as a species is both more intelligent and more capable than ever before. So then why does this drill from the 1960s absolutely mog this drill from 2025?

06:19

Speaker A

drive the local mom and pop stores out of business, therefore reducing the options available, but the factory owners would subsequently raise prices due to the lack of competition, all while their products weren't always up to the same standards as the handmade

06:32

Speaker A

It's not just because it's a Ryobi. You already know about planned obsolescence. The idea that a product should be designed to fail to drive the consumer to well consume more once the product reaches its preconceived demise, which is quite good for the economy and GDP and all that, but not so good for your wallet or your soul.

06:46

Speaker A

more productive than before. And over time, our economy became accustomed to constant [music] technological growth, allowing profit to grow alongside it.

06:55

Speaker A

While this concept is more prevalent now than ever, planned obsolescence is actually only a small part of the much bigger picture in shitification. Initially, the term was coined by a guy called Cory Doctorow to describe how digital platforms like Uber would start off with a strong value proposition, but would subsequently regress its features and increase its price once the platform acquired enough users to hold them hostage, which is a very real problem that permeates virtually all digital services.

07:02

Speaker A

But most won't admit the sobering truth that is innovation is not following the trajectory that our grandparents thought it would. There's a reason why we used to expect flying cars by the year 2000.

07:13

Speaker A

But to build off Mr. Doctorow's ideas, I think in shitification as a concept actually transcends internet services. To me, it's defined as the degradation of any product or service for the explicit and sole sake of profit. Or to put it bluntly, making something worse without making it cheaper.

07:21

Speaker A

Else everything falls apart. So instead of innovating the most competitive offerings, it's more financially prudent to [music] extract additional profit out of your existing goods and services with many technological innovations acting [music] as ways to extract value from

07:35

Speaker A

There are plenty of instances where a good or service has its features or materials removed that don't fall under the guise of in shitification because they result in either a price decrease or just a more streamlined product overall. It becomes in shitification when the user experience suffers for the sake of profit. Especially when said consumers have nowhere else to go.

07:49

Speaker A

to act as a throughway for food delivery drivers, all while offering the worst food of its history for an equally egregious price. [music] And it's why home appliances are being stuffed with smart features that spy on your behavior using your data as the

08:03

Speaker A

Since the industrial revolution 200 years ago, which by the way was not that long ago, people often live to 100. So this is only two people ago. Anyways, technology has played an exponentially more important role in the economy ever since.

08:15

Speaker A

[music] themselves. But the examples hardly stop there. You know, like drills construction dishwashers video games, Microsoft Windows, social media, vacuum cleaners, smart TVs, printers, landlords insurance landlords airlines, hotels, and Airbnbs, utility companies, retail stores, the entire Adobe suite. And my favorite example, or

08:28

Speaker A

Without technology, there is no economy. Period. But why is this relevant to in shitification? To answer that, you need to understand the relationship between technology improving and the economy growing.

08:41

Speaker A

buying and restoring the best built car of all time because [music] I am sick of everything in my life fading into slop.

08:48

Speaker A

The foundation of any economy is labor. And the best way to make labor more effective is to aid it with technology. Whether it be a hammer to make building tables easier or a complex assembly line making it possible to create the same pair of shoes a thousand times over. Something that wasn't possible before the advent of manufacturing.

08:59

Speaker A

1991. But that doesn't mean the car doesn't feel like a piece of [ \_\_ ] [music] because it does. And not only that, but it will not last as long as the cars of yesterday, at least when they were [music] new, which surprise is

09:10

Speaker A

One big fat misconception over the last few centuries is that technology getting better means life getting better. And that's because it is generally true in most ways but not always.

09:22

Speaker A

of corporations. For my entire life, I was told that our increased quality of life over our parents and their parents' lives was made possible only by the free market, which is often true, but not always. Without socialized representation of the people's best

09:36

Speaker A

For example, planned obsolescence as a concept could only ever exist with highly advanced technologies since it requires replicable precision. If you want to make sure your consumers have to come back every 5 years for a new pair of shoes, that would be really hard to do consistently if you were making them by hand. What would likely happen in that case is a high quantity of quality control issues and a bunch of unhappy customers who never come back. But what if you were able to control the level of quality of those shoes to make them consistently mid enough to require repeat purchases through a process of assembly line manufacturing?

09:46

Speaker A

circumventing regulation via legal loopholes, just look at the Tesla Cybertruck. Its classification as a truck allows it to have abhorrent pedestrian safety. And on launch, the Cybertruck had several defects and design flaws, ranging from chopping people's fingers off, [music] all the

10:01

Speaker A

For one, people in poverty can now afford to at least purchase some kind of shoe, which was better than nothing when it wasn't available for such a low price. But that doesn't always last. Not only does the factory drive the local mom and pop stores out of business, therefore reducing the options available, but the factory owners would subsequently raise prices due to the lack of competition, all while their products weren't always up to the same standards as the handmade goods that preceded them.

10:13

Speaker A

anticipated vehicles of the decade, which had access to some of the smartest people alive and an R&D budget the size of a small country. I bring up these examples not just to [ \_\_ ] on the Cybert truck, but because that highlights my

10:25

Speaker A

So, advancements in technology have a history of harming communities by concentrating power. Sound familiar? Every big financial leap in the economy has been the product of a new technology that allowed people to be more productive than before. And over time, our economy became accustomed to constant technological growth, allowing profit to grow alongside it.

10:36

Speaker A

could never. Now, often regulations are heavily influenced either by people who don't truly represent the people or even just [music] the corporations themselves through lobbying. I'm not advocating for more regulation, but I think we can all agree that we can use smarter laws

10:49

Speaker A

But recently, technology hasn't innovated the way we'd expected. Of course, it's not like the sciences and innovations have stagnated entirely.

11:06

Speaker A

What I don't like about my car is just how cheap it feels because it is. Just like any new car these [music] days, it's not that permanent feeling. And there's a reason for that. It's not that permanent. [music] Every time I pull on

11:19

Speaker A

But most won't admit the sobering truth that innovation is not following the trajectory that our grandparents thought it would. There's a reason why we used to expect flying cars by the year 2000.

11:31

Speaker A

as the interior [music] is concerned. Surprise, the generation after my car got shittier. Look at this abomination.

11:40

Speaker A

Because of this, companies don't always know how to make better products and services at the same rate as before, but the economy requires growth. Else everything falls apart. So instead of innovating the most competitive offerings, it's more financially prudent to extract additional profit out of your existing goods and services with many technological innovations acting as ways to extract value from the products and consumers rather than intrinsically improving them.

11:56

Speaker A

matter, but in terms of mechanical longevity and user experience. You know, like clicky buttons that have weight, not plastic fantastic slop that caks and moans every time you look at it the wrong way. I want the best balance of a

12:09

Speaker A

Just to give some...

12:20

Speaker A

I could talk about these cars for hours, and I probably will on my Patreon, but instead of me trying to convince you of anything, I will defer to a source of much more credible automotive authority.

12:30

Speaker A

of the late 80s and early 90s produced some of the highest quality Mercedes-Benz models. That later went away a bit, but for this [music] particular car, it was one of the last recipients of peerless build quality.

12:42

Speaker A

Speaking of Doug Demiro, my search for the ultimate car actually began with Cars and Bids, his auction website.

12:48

Speaker A

#notsponsored. Funnily enough, the only thing I had ever auctioned on before was a camera lens from the Soviet era. So, needless to say, this was anxietyinducing, but also pretty exhilarating. I'm at the office currently bidding on this 300E. Right

13:04

Speaker A

now it's at $4,000 [music] with an hour and a half to go. Wish me luck. All right, we've got 2 minutes left. We're at 6,550.

13:14

Speaker A

6750 6,950 7,150. All right, last bid. 7,350 with a fee of $367. Yep, I got out bid.

13:28

Speaker A

Dang it. [snorts] Yeah, I mean, you knew I wasn't going to get the car. You watched the intro.

13:34

Speaker A

Planned obsolescence is now older than any living person on Earth, which makes it easy to feel like your fridge succumbing to father time before the end of a decade is normal. You see, throughout the decades, there have been

13:45

Speaker A

progressively larger waves of planned obsolescence, each of which being enabled by advancements in technology from their respective era. In the 1920s, actually, light bulbs lifespans were artificially limited to die early. Uh, this isn't a conspiracy theory. It's actually a literal cartel that was

14:01

Speaker A

called Feebis. Phobus, Fubis, I don't know. Uh, where Ozer, Phillips, and GE secretly agreed in 1924 to cut light bulb life from 2500 hours down to a,000.

14:13

Speaker A

And they actually find any member of that organization whose light bulbs lasted too long.

14:23

Speaker A

In the 1950s, household appliances started dying early. And in the 1980s, we had the invention and subsequent boom of electronics like whatever this is, which of course was designed to fail eventually. And just before I was born, the worldwide web was conceived, which

14:38

Speaker A

did a whole lot of good and a whole lot of bad. And now we have this other new thing called artificial intelligence.

14:44

Speaker A

Each era of technology has iterated a one-way ratchet of changing our lives by substituting old ways of doing things.

14:51

Speaker A

[music] Whether it's a washing machine replacing a scrubboard, Google calendar organizing your life, streaming replacing ownership, smartphones annihilating your frontal lobe, or a GPS replacing your sense of direction, or food delivery replacing the kitchen. All of these negative consequences, besides

15:07

Speaker A

the washing machine one, are the results of forward thinking. Uh, life changes and that's okay, but our economy doesn't know how to reflect and reorient. And that's why we have shitification. During my lifetime, the internet has changed everything and often for the worse. I

15:22

Speaker A

grew up going to mom and pop electronic stores, which no longer exist. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I fear the worldwide web has boiled the frog. If you haven't heard of it, it's an interesting metaphor that portrays

15:34

Speaker A

the destruction of well, a frog. Not simply by plopping it into a pot of boiling water, as it would surely jump out in pain. Don't do that, by the way.

15:43

Speaker A

Uh, but by setting the frog down in cool water and slowly turning up the heat, the frog doesn't notice the rise in temperature. In fact, it becomes sedated by the warmth and too distracted by life, taxes, work, family, [music] car

15:56

Speaker A

payments, and the culture war to notice just how hot it's gotten. And by the time things hurt enough to feel real, like something really is happening here, well, it's been boiled alive. And that's what's happening right now, especially

16:08

Speaker A

with the economy. Almost everything sucks now. It's not an entitled statement and you're not being negative or crazy by understanding it.

16:17

Speaker A

Good morning and welcome to Illinois. I'm not entirely sure how this is going to go, but I will say last night I was really worked up about wanting this purchase to go through and I realized that that is how the buyer wins. Uh I'm

16:29

Speaker A

not going to panic buy this car. Foreshadowing. The seller [music] has offered me a purchasing price of $7,500 down from their original listing of $11,000 almost a [music] year ago.

16:46

Speaker A

There it is. Destination is on the left. Put it in g. Fun fact, this was actually the first time I ever drove a 190E, and I loved it. It is dead quiet in here.

16:57

Speaker A

It's hard to show on video, but man, these cars are wellbuilt. Now, that's not to say this car was perfect, because it most certainly wasn't.

17:04

Speaker A

Sure wish the AC [music] worked. seems to idle low when you go slowly. So, the engine needs to tune up.

17:10

Speaker A

I mean, it had a bunch of issues that weren't disclosed in the listing because, [music] well, that's just how this goes.

17:15

Speaker A

It says the oil pressure is going down to almost zero, which that can't be right.

17:19

Speaker A

I like it though. Driving it's nice. But despite its flaws, I I fell in love.

17:24

Speaker A

I did. Yeah, the ABS works. So, the outside of any car will tell you quite a bit of its story, and this one seems okay. There's a few dings and dents which I'll show you. But, uh, honestly, the paint [music] is quite

17:39

Speaker A

nice. And I bet if we did a little paint correction, we could make this thing pop quite a bit as well. The underside [music] is quite clean and very free of rust. All right. What do you say we uh

17:48

Speaker A

give him an offer for six grand and see how upset he gets. I just put it in drive and it's not going anywhere.

17:58

Speaker A

Oh, now we're going somewhere. Let's go lowball that guy. So, overall, the car is in pretty good shape, but I did find some stuff that I wasn't expecting. I like the car. I'd like to buy it, but the only thing that I want is to make

18:10

Speaker A

sure that whatever I pay for it, I can get back a month later if I wanted to sell it. Given the work that it needs, it's probably going to be 1,000 to,500 for all that stuff. So, right now, I'd

18:20

Speaker A

give you 6 grand cash. He somehow convinced me to pay 7,100 for the car.

18:39

Speaker A

Side note, filling it up with 93 cost about $55. Total cost includes $7,153.25. And I'll tell you what, driving this Mercedes home was some of the best 30 minutes of my entire life. Except, well, the drive home is an hour and a half. So

18:57

Speaker A

something happened. foreshadowing. As I mentioned earlier, there's been an increasingly popular new trend of founding an internet-based company like Amazon, Uber, or Teimu, and using venture capital to operate at a loss for however long it takes to establish a

19:16

Speaker A

monopoly in your market. Once you're the only game in town, you can take whatever your competitive angle was and throw it right out the window just to raise prices, decrease quality, and therefore costs, and boom, you've got [music]

19:27

Speaker A

profit. If the need to compete with or outperform your competitor vanishes, well, it won't happen. And the internet has allowed this trend to happen more now than it ever has been. In my opinion, the primary explanation is that

19:39

Speaker A

digital [music] services are intangible, which makes it difficult for consumers like you and I to properly understand the value of what it is they're buying, especially when they're not always buying, they're renting it. The subscription economy has ballooned

19:53

Speaker A

exponentially in the last few decades, and for good reason. Shareholders want their exponential growth and guaranteed profit. So if a company sells something to you and the transaction ends, then they lose their consistent cash flow.

20:05

Speaker A

But worse than that is the fact that a consumer is far far more likely to spend more overall by buying three small things over one big thing. Software is a fantastic example of this. Uh Da Vinci Resolve, which is the legendary video

20:19

Speaker A

editing software that I'm using to edit this video, cost me about $300 4 years ago. And even though the software has actually only gotten better over time via updates, I haven't had to spend a single cent more. Adobe, on the other

20:32

Speaker A

hand, requires monthly subscriptions of $35 a month for just Premiere. Meaning, if I didn't switch to Da [music] Vinci, I would have already spent $1,680 on that buggy, unintuitive mess they call [music] video editing software. And that's just barely scratching the

20:47

Speaker A

surface of inshitification through subscription, [music] which, well, we're seeing more and more and more over time.

20:53

Speaker A

and not just with software. Here's a list of some physical products and features mega corporations have tried to restrict behind a recurrent pay wall in the last 5 years.

21:12

Speaker A

I made it about 20 miles home when I took a pit stop to grab some food when all of a sudden the Mercedes was struck by something called [music] spontaneous windshield combustion syndrome.

21:27

Speaker A

What the [ \_\_ ] I get out to look at the car. I'm admiring its beauty. And boy is it beautiful when all of a sudden literally just bought this car.

21:38

Speaker A

Like 30 minutes ago. I'm an hour and a half away from home and this is a complete [music] mess and it just exploded. Who knows how much it'll cost to replace.

21:47

Speaker A

To this day, I have no idea how it happened. The only real explanation is that I have cosmically bad luck. These things happen. Not commonly, but they do happen and it could happen to you at any moment.

22:04

Speaker A

Ooh, I like that color. There is one issue with it. All of a sudden, I heard a RANDOM [laughter] um How easy is it to get glass for those?

22:18

Speaker A

I went through three different glass repair shops to ask them if they could fix my car and they all said no because the glass isn't available [music] new.

22:25

Speaker A

See, Mercedes doesn't make it anymore. I got very lucky that there actually happened to be one available here in Dayne County. Fun fact, my insurance agent actually told [music] me that this is the least amount of time she's ever

22:35

Speaker A

seen between starting a policy and filing [music] a claim. 28 minutes. Now, the only reason I didn't get screwed over is because I took this photo as soon as I started the policy.

22:47

Speaker A

Yeah. Yeah, if I didn't take that photo, I would have been [ \_\_ ] When you sell a product to someone, you transfer ownership of said product and the transaction ends. So, for the last century, corporations and small

22:58

Speaker A

businesses alike have been maximizing the tactics of add-ons, uh, customer retention, and downstream [music] sales.

23:04

Speaker A

All of which result in a transaction that has ownership being part of the deal. But everything changed once a little startup came up with the idea of not buying the right to watch a movie, but renting it. Netflix. The selection

23:17

Speaker A

was more widely available, larger, and convenient. Fun fact, Netflix actually [music] started off by mailing you DVDs instead of streaming it online. My family was super into it at the time, so I can remember coming home from elementary school, like once a week, and

23:29

Speaker A

checking my mailbox for any new movies we were going to watch. When it became fully online, things got even better.

23:35

Speaker A

You could just stream whatever you wanted to watch without the hassle of physical media. And it was much cheaper than having to buy movies if you watch more than a couple a month, which most people do. But over time, a lot of time

23:47

Speaker A

now the water is starting to get hot and this frog is feeling sweaty. Instead of a monopoly causing inshitification, this time the competition did in a way. Since other conglomerates caught on to the profitability of online streaming, [music] everyone started bidding on the

24:03

Speaker A

rights for the content in Netflix's library. And everyone started pumping out original TV shows and movies to compete with other companies IPs. The problem is there's only so much content to go around and [music] most content ever made won't and shouldn't stick

24:16

Speaker A

around since only the good ones are worth revisiting. So now we have far too many streaming services with far too high prices charging us to make shitty TV that few people will ever watch, let alone enjoy. Here's a fun fact about

24:28

Speaker A

movies getting worse. A media exec uh actually admitted to the fact that script writers are pressured and forced to reword their dialogue to include a summary of the plot in spoken [music] words every few minutes so that people

24:40

Speaker A

doom scrolling on their phones will still be able to tell what's going on. So now everyone loses bad entertainment at too high a price from [music] too many providers. So it's just [ \_\_ ] cable again, but worse because our

24:52

Speaker A

system rewards profit over results. And while streaming sucks now compared to 2018, the industry has ballooned from 40 billion to over 200 billion in value.

25:03

Speaker A

But let me ask you this. Does streaming feel over 400% better? All right, I think I've waited long enough. Would you like the official tour?

25:17

Speaker A

It's cassette holders. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's very clicky and tactile. Oh, and feel the door latch from the inside.

25:28

Speaker A

What is that hinge? That is a strange looking. Yeah, I like this angle right here. That is There goes another 10 mm. [snorts] [music] There is a lot of engineering crammed into this tiny [music] little car. For example, this seat that I'm sitting on

26:13

Speaker A

is actually not leather, even though it looks and feels like it. It's a synthetic [music] leather that outlasts the leather equivalent that was shipped with this car. So, Mercedes was able to make a seat material that was better

26:24

Speaker A

than leather and then didn't make it again [music] after this car. Why? I don't know. Now, this is a relatively boxy looking car, but that is kind of deceptive. If you look at it, there's all these curves and body lines that add

26:38

Speaker A

up to a very aerodynamic vehicle. But more interesting than that is the [music] fact that the rear windshield, while it doesn't have a wiper, it doesn't need one. See, it's designed so that above a certain speed, if it's

26:51

Speaker A

[music] raining, the wind will crash down onto the rear glass, pushing the rain off. Oh, and while I'm here, I got to show you.

27:02

Speaker A

If you look in here, you'll notice that there's no struts. It's actually just balanced on a hinge with a spring. So, you'll never [music] have to replace the struts for your trunk.

27:10

Speaker A

cuz it doesn't have any. And you might have noticed earlier, but the wiper singular is one singular wiper. It's a cool mechanism that actually ends up covering more of the windshield than two could because of the way it extends

27:23

Speaker A

[music] when in the corners. All right, driving the Mercedes 190E. What is it like? Well, it's two things. Very smooth and very competent. [music] Something that it isn't is sporty, but it's still got spunk and it's still got spirit. And

27:38

Speaker A

it is admittedly kind of fun in a weird way to drive this car spiritedly. And man, these seats are so comfortable. I don't know why someone decided all of a sudden that headrests aren't supposed to be headrests. Oh, and by the way, this

27:52

Speaker A

car has automatic climate control. How Mercedes figured that out back then, I don't know. How reliable is that feature? I don't know. How hard is it to repair when it breaks? I hope I never know.

28:05

Speaker A

Back in the day, luxury wasn't defined by how [music] many screens were sloppily plastered onto the dash, removing physical buttons for climate control, among other things, or whether your car could [music] dispense a Mercedes-Benz specific scent through the

28:17

Speaker A

vents or vibrating seats or projected logo of the car's brand onto the ground. It was defined by quality, a physical sensation of permanence. In fact, Mercedes had a dedicated team working on something called Gabbritlong [music] or in English, use value engineering.

28:35

Speaker A

Yeah, that didn't help me either. It basically means how does something feel to use and how can it be improved to the highest possible extent. It's an art form of making a product's experience better in a way that's really hard to

28:46

Speaker A

show in an advertisement. Hence why it didn't stick around. There's countless stories of engineers going through trial and error of trying different materials and [music] designs to make things as small as the door latch feel as solid as

28:57

Speaker A

possible. And if you interact with one of these old cars, you get the idea rather quickly. They're called bank vault doors for a reason. Now, take a look at a modern Mercedes-Benz like the $150,000 plus S-Class, which has a

29:10

Speaker A

dashboard that caks and rattles if you look at it the wrong way. Sure, it does tickle the part of your brain that enjoys technology, novelty, and well, rich people vibes, but it isn't here to stay. Modern luxury vehicles are so

29:21

Speaker A

complicated that is completely financially irresponsible to own them past 10 years or 100,000 m due to the required maintenance that would keep them on the road. Uh, which is crazy to me. You'd think that after spending a generational amount of wealth on a car

29:37

Speaker A

that you'd want it to last, but well, that is no longer the world we live in.

29:42

Speaker A

But it used to be that way. Mercedes doesn't have a monopoly on cars. There's plenty of other brands and even German luxury brands to compete with. So, how can this be a product of initification?

29:53

Speaker A

Well, you don't always need a monopoly for [music] things to get worse. Much like Netflix, you just need market consolidation, short-term incentives, and a race to the bottom disguises innovation. See, even when there are multiple companies competing, they're

30:05

Speaker A

all responding [music] to the same pressures in an ever evolving economy. quarterly earnings, shareholder expectations, rising [music] production costs, regulatory loopholes, and the fact that the average consumer has slowly been conditioned to accept less for more. So instead of competing to

30:20

Speaker A

build the best product, they compete to build one that's cheapest to manufacture while still looking good enough on the showroom floor to move units.

30:28

Speaker A

So I [music] have a bit of a problem, which is that my steering linkage A little [music] [music] Don't look at that door.

31:03

Speaker A

[music] Woo! [music] [music] Doesn't budge. So immediately you can feel just how much lighter the steering is.

31:34

Speaker A

But the steering wheel tracks pretty straight. Look at that. Yay. We did it. It was so easy. Lane change.

31:44

Speaker A

Feels like this car when I turn is very hard to put it off balance.

31:49

Speaker A

Oh god. [laughter] Like every other car I've driven that has a laggy throttle. You know, you'll get nothing. Then boom, power. This is just like easy roll on and off. Makes me want to just drive nowhere. Engine is so

32:01

Speaker A

smooth, too. I mean, it's a straight six. It's got to be smooth. Okay, that was a really rough railroad crossing. This It just like glides over.

32:21

Speaker A

[music] You are covered in gender fluid. Yes. You did it. Not only that, but companies have used social engineering through advertising to manufacture consumer demand, not just in quantity, but in quality. This might sound a little bit crazy, but most folks

33:08

Speaker A

these days do in fact value longevity and quality less than they used to. But how? Well, I'll answer that with a very simple question. When's the last time you saw a car commercial that advertised durability or longevity? These six

33:22

Speaker A

[music] Mercedes models built more than a decade ago is actually worth more money today than the day it [music] was new. Value that endures.

33:36

Speaker A

Drive Pilot is [music] the first fully approved, conditionally automated drive technology that lets you take your eyes and your mind off the road.

33:46

Speaker A

It's not that Mercedes wants to build bad cars. It's that Mercedes wants to build cars that maximize return on investment in a market where everyone else is doing the exact same thing because it works. The competition isn't about durability, repairability, or

34:00

Speaker A

craftsmanship anymore. It's about software features. subscription add-ons and whatever buzzword the marketing team can vomit onto the brochure that quarter. Also, they track your data now.

34:10

Speaker A

And that's all automakers, by the way. But even Hyundai claims they reserve the right to track when you have sex [music] based on your contacts and your driving habits.

34:20

Speaker A

Anyways, it's not just cars. And shitification ripples through every single industry that used to revolve around quality and longevity. And now it revolves around margin maximalization.

34:30

Speaker A

Construction companies are cutting material quality. Appliance manufacturers are switching from metal gears to plastic ones because consumers don't notice until it breaks. Nothing breaks all at once. It's more like a controlled demolition in slow motion.

34:42

Speaker A

One tiny cost cutting measure here and a subscription service there and an updated model that somehow gets worse every year until one day you realize you haven't interacted with something genuinely well-made in [music] god knows how long. You end up spending far more

34:56

Speaker A

on replacing products, subscribing to essential services, and losing rights and protections every step of the way.

35:02

Speaker A

And this is all because our economy cannot survive unless it is constantly growing. But that's not just a metaphor.

35:09

Speaker A

It's a structural requirement baked into the foundation of our financial system. Modern economies run on debt, and debt requires interest. And interest requires that tomorrow's economy be larger [music] than today's. When a bank lends money into existence, which is quite

35:24

Speaker A

literally how most money is created, it expects that money back plus more. Now, that plus more has to come from somewhere. And for a very long time, [music] it came from genuine productivity gains, new technologies, new markets, more efficient labor. But

35:40

Speaker A

as those gains slow down and the lowhanging fruit of innovation [music] gets harder to reach, that growth imperative doesn't slow down with it. It can't. So instead of creating new value, the system starts extracting existing value from workers, from consumers, and

35:55

Speaker A

from the products themselves. What you experience [music] as a creaky dashboard or a printer that stops working the day your warranty expires isn't a coincidence or even purely corporate greed. It's the logical output of a system that is structurally incapable of

36:08

Speaker A

standing still. It's either growth or death. And when real growth is hard to come by, the next best thing is the illusion of it. Dressed up as innovation, sold to you as an upgrade, and designed to expire just in time for

36:20

Speaker A

the next one. This is the list of everything wrong with Gunther. By the way, Gunther is Gunther's name. You already know the oil pressure gauge and the coolant temperature gauge didn't work. And I got really, really lucky because it was in fact just the sensors

36:35

Speaker A

for both that weren't working. The windshield grenaded itself. Did you know that the AC didn't work? And the drive shaft bushings are super duper worn. Oh, and the reason why I thought the engine was running poorly wasn't because the engine was running poorly.

36:57

Speaker A

It was because the engine mounts that it sits on top of were completely shot. So, I just had to replace those, which was really hard.

37:18

Speaker A

[music] And of course, you can't buy a 35-year-old car without changing the oil. Get up. Get up.

37:47

Speaker A

Hey. See, one of the things that happens to any car that sits for any prolonged amount of time is all of the rubber bits dry out. That's going to be any gaskets that hold oil inside of the engine or

37:59

Speaker A

rubber bits in the transmission that flexes in the disc and blah blah blah. The point is, these things like to be used, and when you don't use them, they fail. Now, all of these things are completely doable. In fact, they're

38:11

Speaker A

something that anyone can DIY themselves. But, um, one of the funny things about when cars sit for a while is they don't actually manifest [music] all of their problems immediately. It took a little bit of driving to really

38:23

Speaker A

expose those gremlins in Gunther. And, uh, let me tell you, there were gremlins. foreshadowing.

38:35

Speaker A

There's a good chance that you've been yelling at me this whole time about survivorship bias. And first of all, this is a video. I can't hear you.

38:42

Speaker A

Secondly, you're right. Most things throughout history, whether it's a car from the 70s or a toaster from the 80s or a jacket from World War II, simply were not made to last, and therefore, we don't see them today. If only all the

38:54

Speaker A

good stuff minus a few exceptions made it to the modern day, then of course it's going to look like everything that was made in the past is better than what we have now. Except that doesn't paint the full picture and it doesn't

39:04

Speaker A

contradict my point. One thing you have to understand is that while there will always be exceptions to the rule, there is a pattern here. The median of all products are gradually being designed to be as useless [music] as the consumer

39:16

Speaker A

can possibly tolerate and often more. Things you used to own are being rented to you. And even if you wanted to buy a car like this Mercedes with this level of quality and craftsmanship and staying power, well, you can't. Let's say all

39:28

Speaker A

you want is a car that is as reliable as this Mercedes was when it was new.

39:32

Speaker A

Forget the build quality for now, as those are two different things. Toyota, which has largely been regarded as the [music] most dependable car brand for many decades at this point, doesn't even make cars with the same level of quality

39:42

Speaker A

in both their defect rate and the longevity of the cars overall. They are less reliable than they were 10 or 15 years ago. And not only do they require [music] more repairs, but they are significantly harder to work on,

39:54

Speaker A

especially if you're independent [music] and therefore more expensive to repair due to regulations, consumer demand, and of course in shitification. It doesn't mean it's hell on earth. It's just worse and it's not going to get better unless something really big changes. The 190E

40:10

Speaker A

isn't mechanically [music] perfect, but it is solid. It doesn't tolerate neglect, but it does tolerate time and a lot of it given proper maintenance.

40:23

Speaker A

So, I am driving in my first snowstorm in the Mercedes, and now would be a really good opportunity to use the rear defroster, as you can see. But I'm just not feeling that yet.

40:38

Speaker A

This will do. All right, literally 3 minutes later, just wanted to give a quick update. Uh, my wiper stopped working. I'm not going to lie, this sucks. I can't see [ \_\_ ] [music] What ended [music] up breaking in the

41:04

Speaker A

wiper, unsurprisingly, was the only plastic component in there. Now, they still manufacture this part, but it would take like 3 weeks to get it. So, I know a guy named Joel who creates things, who also happens to have

41:15

Speaker A

a 3D printer. Take this. What is it? The wrong thing. Ah, mother. Thank you.

41:25

Speaker A

No problem. What a good friend. Feel like that guy who's like, "Look at all this food we got." Huh?

41:31

Speaker A

Who has the best girlfriend ever? I do. Who just bought you all this stuff?

41:37

Speaker A

She did. [music] [music] Woohoo! So, what happens exactly when there's no more value to extract? [music] When the product is already as cheap as it can be, the subscription is already as expensive as people will tolerate, [music] and the quality has already

42:05

Speaker A

bottomed out. This isn't a hypothetical. We're starting to find out in real time. [music] And the answer is ugly in a few distinct ways. The first and most immediate response from corporations is to [music] go after things that weren't

42:16

Speaker A

previously considered products. Your attention, your data, your behavioral patterns, your location history, your sleep schedule. If there's no margin [music] left in the physical thing you're buying, they start monetizing the person buying it instead. This is already the primary business model of

42:30

Speaker A

most major tech companies, and it's rapidly bleeding into industries that have nothing to [music] do with tech at all. Samsung smart TVs were caught sending unencrypted screenshots of what users were watching to third party servers. John Deere tractors, which

42:44

Speaker A

farmers own outright, are locked behind software that prohibits the farmer from repairing their own equipment. Not because it's technically necessary, but because the repair ecosystem is now a revenue stream. A 2023 Mosilla Foundation report found that all 25

43:00

Speaker A

major [music] car brands they reviewed failed the minimum privacy standards. The second thing that happens is consolidation and a lot of it. When margins compress across an entire industry [music] smaller players can't survive and get absorbed by whoever has the deepest

43:14

Speaker A

pockets. This further reduces competition, which [music] reduces the incentive to improve anything, which accelerates the very degradation that caused margin compression in the first place. It's a vicious feedback loop.

43:26

Speaker A

Between 1997 and 2012, the number of American companies publicly listed on the stock exchange dropped by roughly 50%. From about 7,000 to 3,700, largely due to mergers and acquisitions. Three companies control the majority of the global beer market. And two companies,

43:41

Speaker A

Proctor and Gamble and Unilever, manufacture the vast majority of consumer goods you'll [music] find at any grocery store under hundreds of different brand names. The illusion of choice persists, [music] but the competitive pressure that would theoretically drive quality upward does

43:56

Speaker A

not. The third consequence is the one nobody in a boardroom will put in the slide deck, demand destruction. When people consistently get less than what they paid [music] for, they eventually stop paying. This is already showing up in the data. US consumer confidence hit

44:11

Speaker A

multi-deade lows in 2020. Subscription fatigue is now a documented and [music] widely studied phenomenon with surveys showing the average American household underestimates their monthly subscription [music] spending by over $100. The secondhand market, which grew 15 times faster than traditional retail

44:27

Speaker A

between 2020 and 2023, is a direct behavioral response to people no longer trusting new products. Repair cafes, which are community spaces where people gather to fix broken appliances and clothing rather than replace them, have grown from a single location in

44:41

Speaker A

Amsterdam in 2009 to over 2,500 [music] locations globally today. People are not doing this because it's [music] fun.

44:49

Speaker A

They're doing it because the math on buying new no longer works. And God knows what happens when the quality goods of yester year finally run out, leaving us stuck with only what's available new. And that's the part that

45:01

Speaker A

should be genuinely concerning [music] for anyone paying attention. Not just for consumers, but the corporations doing the value extracting. An economy that is structurally dependent [music] on growth, but has largely run out of real value to create can only sustain

45:15

Speaker A

itself through increasingly aggressive [music] extraction from an increasingly exhausted consumer base. At some point, the consumer base pushes back, opts out, or simply runs out of money. None of those outcomes are good for an economy built on the assumption that consumption

45:29

Speaker A

will always expand. [music] The drive shaft bushings are super duper worn, like [music] really bad. So, I need to replace that.

45:42

Speaker A

You might be wondering like why I'm doing all of this work for this car.

45:46

Speaker A

Like, is it worth it? What is the point? Like, what what why why do this? [music] And the answer is completely emotional.

45:53

Speaker A

This is not a logistical decision. I'm not trying [music] to improve my life in terms of my net worth uh let alone uh my time. But that's not why I bought the car. I mean, I already touched on this a

46:05

Speaker A

little bit, but I I am so sick and tired of everything in this world and in my life just crumbling to DUST AND BLOWING AWAY. SORRY, THAT WAS AN INVINCIBLE REFERENCE. I'm not even that old and I'm seeing it happen in my lifetime. things

46:19

Speaker A

are getting worse and so [music] I'm willing to invest into something that I know will take care of me. Not just because I think it'll be pretty reliable long term, but it nourishes a part of my soul that is sorely lacking in

46:32

Speaker A

nourishment. [music] It's so important to me that the things in my life feel solid, that they represent engineering and design. And that is not something that I get out of a 2017 [music] Altra. It's not something that I get out of any new car for sale

46:47

Speaker A

today. None of them. It makes me feel optimistic about life, about humanity and engineering. [music] And it it's an ideal for me to strive towards. If one aspect of my life can be this cool, everything can too. It really makes me

47:02

Speaker A

feel good. It It's very much emotional. There's also just something so beautiful about not only maintaining the things you own, but by restoring something [music] that no one else wanted to give a second chance, but it's also yours

47:14

Speaker A

now. Like there are many Mercedes like this one. They sold probably like a million of them, but this one is mine.

47:22

Speaker A

[music] [music] [music] Oh, that is so much better. You hardly even feel it. Yeah.

47:45

Speaker A

And now we're stuck on the ice. That's good. [laughter] Ow. Oh, little downshift here.

47:53

Speaker A

Yes. Seamless. And the upshift. Oh, yeah. Oh, that is so much better. This car feels like it's like 10 years newer after that.

48:05

Speaker A

Oh, it's classic. Classic communication. It's so much smoother. Is it? It's so nice. It's really nice.

48:18

Speaker A

Which brings us to the newest and most powerful accelerant this whole process has ever had, artificial intelligence.

48:25

Speaker A

And before you roll your eyes, this isn't a speech about AI being inherently evil or benevolent because it's just technology and the technology itself is genuinely remarkable. Now, a lot of the people and companies pushing it are actually pretty evil, but that doesn't

48:40

Speaker A

mean the only alternative is abstinence. Large language models and automation tools represent a legitimate leap in human capability. In the hands of someone trying to make something genuinely better, it's about as close to a superpower as we've ever had. It is at

48:53

Speaker A

its core a logistical tool and a pretty good one at that. That's what it should be. But the people with the most resources to deploy it at scale are not small business owners or independent scientists. They're the same

49:04

Speaker A

corporations that already figured out that extracting value is more profitable than creating it. And rather than using AI to do the work nobody wants to do, they're pushing it on us to replace the work people actually want to do and

49:16

Speaker A

pocketing the difference. The most visible and insulting example is AI generated art. There is no shortage of creative people. Nobody was sitting around wishing there were fewer humans making things. But replacing a human illustrator with a generator that

49:30

Speaker A

scraped their work without consent costs less. And in a system that treats margin as the only metric that matters, that's all the justification needed. It doesn't make a better product. It makes a cheaper one. And I think that's what

49:42

Speaker A

makes this particular chapter of initification so uniquely demoralizing. Corporate greed is so deeply ingrained at this [music] point that it took one of the most genuinely astounding technologies in human history and made it feel lame as [ \_\_ ] That's actually

49:56

Speaker A

impressive in the worst possible way. [music] Meanwhile, the actual logistical applications that could genuinely improve people's lives are either underfunded, locked behind subscriptions, or shaped to serve corporate [music] interests over consumer ones. CLA actually announced in 2024 that they would replace 700 of

50:11

Speaker A

their customer service agent with AI, framing it as an efficiency win. IBM froze hiring on 7,800 positions slated for automation. And McKenzie estimates that I think up to 30% of US working hours could be completely automated by the year 2030. None of that productivity

50:28

Speaker A

gain goes to the consumer or the displaced worker. It gets reported as profit while customer service gets worse and the people who held those jobs figure out what's next. On top of displacement, AI is being used to manufacture the illusion of abundance.

50:40

Speaker A

fake product listings flooding Amazon, keyword stuffed articles polluting search results and support lines designed to sound just human enough to keep you on hold without ever actually solving your problem. It is the industrialization of [ \_\_ ] and it is

50:54

Speaker A

happening faster than any previous wave of inshitification because the tool enabling it is orders of magnitude more [music] powerful than anything before.

51:02

Speaker A

The technology could genuinely serve people and probably will for individuals resourceful enough to use it on their own terms. But without regulation that forces these tools to work [music] in the consumer's best interest rather than against it, AI is not going to be the

51:16

Speaker A

great equalizer anyone hoped for. Which is why I want to talk about today's sponsor, Rule. Look, I I don't do ads for things I can't get behind. In fact, this is my first ever sponsorship. And Rule is one of those rare cases where a

51:29

Speaker A

company is actually using AI the way it should be used. I've been a longtime LLM skeptic for all the reasons I listed in this video. But rule is two [music] things. Number one, it's actually useful. And number two, it respects your

51:42

Speaker A

privacy. And as far as I'm aware, there's no other LLM that can do both of those things at [music] the same time.

51:48

Speaker A

It's built and hosted in Europe, which matters more than it sounds. European data law is genuinely [music] stricter than what American companies operate under, and rule takes it further than legally required. There's no cookies, no third party tracking [music] pixels, no

52:00

Speaker A

selling your data, and no ads. Your workspace is yours. But the thing that really makes rules [music] stand out is what they call object memory. Every other AI I've used, including the big names, forget everything the second the

52:11

Speaker A

conversation gets complicated enough to actually matter. I'd been stuck on a fuel injection problem with Gunther for 2 weeks. And after about like 10 minutes of back and forth, it helped me identify a leaky fuel injector that had been

52:22

Speaker A

driving me absolutely [ \_\_ ] crazy for like 2 weeks. That is AI functioning exactly the way it should, solving a real problem for a real person. So, if you've abstained from using AI till now, well, Rule is a great place to [music]

52:36

Speaker A

get started, and it's only getting better. I've used it quite a bit, and I haven't had to pay a single scent. The free tier is [music] very generous. Feel free to get started. No credit card required. rule.dev link is in the

52:47

Speaker A

description. Thank you, Rule, for helping make this video possible. I genuinely [music] appreciate it.

52:56

Speaker A

The honeymoon period with Gunther was back on. I fixed everything that needed fixing. And man, I love driving this car around. But like all honeymoon periods, [music] it came to an end. In fact, the first time I ever drove my friends

53:10

Speaker A

around in this car, well, we all got in, we're sitting in the parking lot, I turn the key, and the engine goes. Gunther was engineered in a time before mainstream electronic fuel injection was a [music] thing. It's a mechanical style

53:22

Speaker A

of fuel injection that is dead reliable and very smooth, but it's somewhat antiquated. And most of the people who understand the system, well, they understood it because now they're dead.

53:33

Speaker A

That being said, I actually noticed a smell of gasoline from the engine bay. Not only is that kind of a bummer, but it's also super [music] dangerous. I don't know if you knew this, but gasoline explodes, and I don't like

53:44

Speaker A

exploding. My windshield already did. I tried replacing something called the cold [music] start valve cuz I thought the smell was coming from there, but the smell was not coming from there. And so I just ended up spending $200 I didn't

53:55

Speaker A

need to. I've replaced the coolant [music] temperature sensor, the fuel injector seals, and the cold start valve, and it's done nothing. So, I'm going to go ahead and take a look at the spark plugs [music] to see if they can

54:04

Speaker A

show me any secrets. So, the first culprit that anyone says to check for a hot start issue on one of these cars is something called the fuel accumulator. I'll spare you the details, but what it's responsible for doing is

54:16

Speaker A

making sure that when you turn the engine off that all the fuel doesn't just gush back into the fuel tank. It stays in the system. So, I check the fuel accumulator and get this, it was leaking. You could tell because when you

54:28

Speaker A

turn the key, fuel just gushes out the back of it, meaning something in the diaphragm was ruptured. So, I think I found my problem.

54:35

Speaker A

Except I didn't. All right, I've got good news and I've got bad news. Uh, the good news is is that the car didn't explode. Other than that, actually replacing the fuel accumulator didn't do anything. Even though it was confirmed

54:49

Speaker A

broken, [music] there seems to be some other underlying issue that trumps whatever was wrong with the fuel accumulator.

54:58

Speaker A

The engine still didn't run quite right. So, I'm looking around trying to find [music] things, and I found what no car enthusiast wants to see from their engine bay. I just smelled fuel around the engine. Again, that doesn't sound

55:12

Speaker A

like good news, but if I can just find a fuel leak, that makes things quite a bit more simple. And where I found the fuel link fuel leak is right here. The smell of gasoline was actually coming from

55:23

Speaker A

something called the EHA or electro-hydraulic actuator. It's responsible for a lot to do with the engine's fuel management. So, I did what any normal enthusiast does, and I replaced the seals. Except that wasn't what the problem was, even though I had

55:38

Speaker A

to wait a week for the seals to show up. No, it was the EHA itself. Not only does this suck because I have to like spend $400 on the new EHA, but it also sucks because replacing it is kind of a

55:49

Speaker A

hassle. You see, there's this process where you have to measure a certain kind of fuel pressure, but it's not normal fuel pressure. It's like specific German fuel pressure. And then you have to like measure the differential between them so

55:58

Speaker A

that you can accurately calibrate by like a quarter turn on the little Allen key. But you have to take the EHA on and off and on and off and on and off and on and off every single time you do it. And

56:05

Speaker A

it just takes a while. It's not exactly fun. But I did it and it went well. Or at least I thought it went well because the engine still didn't run right. In fact, it ran the same.

56:21

Speaker A

So, at this point, I'm starting to get a little frustrated. So, I do what I honestly should have started with, and I replaced all the rubber bits [music] in the engine bay. Engines require something called a vacuum. If you have a

56:34

Speaker A

leak in your system, in your vacuum system, everything gets thrown off. Your [music] fuel economy is terrible, your car is slower, it'll run like crap, and given that all the rubber bits in the engine bay are super old, something had

56:46

Speaker A

to be leaking. And it was because after I replaced all of them, which took kind of a while, the engine ran better, but not perfect. There was there was still just something not quite right. It would hesitate and it would burp and I it's

57:00

Speaker A

just like it was better. Don't get me wrong. It was better, but it wasn't quite right. So, I was at my wit's end, which is why I purchased something called a smoke machine. This is a beautiful tool that allows you to well

57:14

Speaker A

plug smoke directly into the vacuum system of your engine. That way, if there's a leak anywhere, well, smoke will pop right out. And lo and behold, there was smoke leaking in the engine bay. Right on the part that I just

57:27

Speaker A

replaced. Except, wait, that's not what I just replaced. That's the throttle body. Gunther is an old car. New cars aren't like this anymore. But the gas pedal is actually directly connected to well the throttle of the engine. And

57:41

Speaker A

that linkage that goes from the gas pedal to the engine, well, it developed a leak, which is incredibly frustrating because I just had that part off.

57:51

Speaker A

Although, not just that, that part doesn't exist. At least not as far as Mercedes is concerned because they don't make it anymore. So, I came up with a clever solution. actually just took an O-ring and stuffed it in between the

58:04

Speaker A

linkage and the throttle body. And believe it or not, that was actually enough to reduce the smoke, at least more or less. And after that, well, the car the car ran beautifully.

58:22

Speaker A

I did it. I did it. I bought the car. I restored it. I made it work. It drives great. I actually use it as my daily driver. Like in my neighborhood, I'm known as the guy who drives the old

58:30

Speaker A

Mercedes. Every single little thing about the car is just so profoundly robust. It feels incredible.

58:39

Speaker A

[music] The single most reliable filter for whether a product is worth buying is whether a company that makes it needs it to last. Darn Tough, for example, makes socks in Vermont and replaces worn pairs for free unconditionally forever. That

58:52

Speaker A

guarantee only works as a business model if the socks actually last, which means they have a financial reason to make sure they do. The second thing, if a product has software in it, find out what happens to that product when the

59:03

Speaker A

company decides your version is no longer profitable or the company even stops existing altogether. What time is it? [ \_\_ ] time. If you're wondering why it has so many weird little details and all that, well, that's actually

59:16

Speaker A

because this is actually an activity tracker. See, this watch will track your steps, which is kind of amazing for how it looks. Plus, the battery lasts for like a year, which is fantastic.

59:28

Speaker A

Except Timex discontinued the app for this watch on iOS. Now, why should it need an app? I don't know. But that's how you make it work. Without the app, it doesn't it doesn't track your steps.

59:41

Speaker A

I've worn this all day. I've walked like 10,000 steps and it's not tracking it.

59:45

Speaker A

Why? Because I don't have the app. it it doesn't impact my life that much. But not only is it about what it represents, but it's not just this watch. If companies can get away with just bricking things that you bought, well,

59:58

Speaker A

what else do I have to say? They can get away with bricking things you bought.

60:02

Speaker A

And this is now the default playbook for any physical product with a connected component. And it will keep spreading.

60:09

Speaker A

Before buying anything with an app, a subscription, or a firmware dependency, search the product name alongside right to repair or brricked update online.

60:18

Speaker A

iFixit scores products on a repairability scale and publishes free repair guides for thousands of items. A product that is easy to repair was also almost always designed to last long enough to be worth repairing. The secondhand market is not a consolation

60:31

Speaker A

prize. For a lot of product categories, it is the correct answer. On the money side, the single highest leverage thing most people can act on immediately is subscriptions. The average American spends like $220 a month on subscriptions and underestimates that

60:44

Speaker A

number by two and a half times. I really suggest pulling every recurring charge from your bank statement and ask which ones you would really consciously repurchase right now if they required a deliberate decision. Beyond that, the math almost always rules in favor of

60:58

Speaker A

buying something good once rather than buying something cheap repeatedly. Also known as buy once, cry once. It's something that you can only do in a position of privilege. So, I'm not looking down on anyone who doesn't have the financial means to do so, but it is

61:10

Speaker A

an investment in your future. A cheap product replaced three times costs more than a good product bought once, and the gap compounds more across every category [music] in your life simultaneously.

61:20

Speaker A

Most of this video has been rather politically charged, but it's about to get even stronger. So, if that's not the kind of content you're looking for, [music] now is a good time to call it. A recent video of mine was about how

61:30

Speaker A

modern e-commerce uses such advanced algorithm technology to manufacture your and my demand that previous notions of consumer welfare no longer apply if they ever did. Meaning, if you're psychologically manipulated via algorithms to want to buy something, that probably actually isn't in your

61:46

Speaker A

best interest, even though you are technically still buying it of your own valition. And at the end of the video, to provide a solution to you, the viewer, I said, don't panic. Organize change is the product of many people's

61:57

Speaker A

actions. So get out there and make this right. Please vote. And that might have felt oddly vague as I was afraid to [music] really say what I think you should do or vote for. Look, I'm not trying to be anyone's role model or even

62:09

Speaker A

tell you who to vote for specifically. What I am saying is if you want large corporations to stop getting away [music] with near total control of the market, you cannot keep rewarding the same incentive structures that produce this outcome in the first place. [music]

62:20

Speaker A

When regulatory loopholes, consolidation, and shareholder primacy go unchecked, quality is going to decline. competition is going to fade and consumers lose leverage. This isn't about left versus right. It's about whether markets serve people or people serve markets. History shows that

62:35

Speaker A

meaningful change has always come when concentrated power, whether corporate or political, is forced to answer to the public. You and I can't fix the entire system in a single YouTube video. But there are things we can [music] do to

62:46

Speaker A

get us closer. Avoid voting for people who have a lot of lobbying dollars spent on them. In the US, lobbying has become one of the primary ways concentrated wealth buys political influence. It's a bribe that happens to be legal. So

62:58

Speaker A

support the people fighting it. Right to repair, strong consumer protections, meaningful antirust enforcement, and data ownership rights. Vote for power moving back towards users and away from the companies trying to lock you inside their ecosystem. So not only is the

63:13

Speaker A

question whether or not this experiment was worth it, but more importantly, how much did it cost? Number one, yes. And number two, about $10,000. If you're as crazy as I am and you want to do something like this, I have some advice

63:28

Speaker A

for you. Number one, it cannot be your only car. No matter how well-made a vehicle is, [music] if it was made over 30 years ago, it's going to break down eventually. The other thing is don't treat it as an [music] investment. Don't

63:41

Speaker A

spend every penny to your name on a project car. It's never ever worth it unless it's a Volkswagen Curado.

63:49

Speaker A

Whatever repairs you need to do, do them slowly. Throwing parts at your problems is never [music] going to end well. Just like everything in life, costs can add up extraordinarily quickly. And if you're not careful, especially with project cars, [music] you can end up

64:04

Speaker A

spending tens of thousands of dollars on two old red German cars from 1991. How did I do that? Okay, if you would be gracious enough with your time, I would love to pitch to you the idea of subscribing to my Patreon. First of all,

64:17

Speaker A

you don't have to. Watching this video [music] is plenty enough of support. But if you want to go the extra mile, you're also getting some benefits. For one, this video was released 2 days early on Patreon. So, if that's important to you,

64:26

Speaker A

now you have that. Plus, any tier actually gets their names listed in my videos, like these guys. As you can see, there's not that many because I have a very small channel. I do feel very proud of this video, and [music] I'm really

64:38

Speaker A

excited to continue making these. I want to be able to make them better, and especially, I want to be able to make them faster. And if you're interested in either of those things happening, well, you know what to do. Thank you.

Topics: planned obsolescence product quality economic decline vintage technology inshitification corporate profit engineering subscription economy Quincy Sandbank Mercedes restoration

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