craftsmen/artisans vs Cheap goods

[DWFII]

Ted,

I think you are finding insult where none was or is intended. It was just an essay...one that I have thought about for many years. One that, may I suggest, I am very well positioned to address. If you re-read the post...and re-read it with all that in mind...you will see that it is aimed at no one and covers everyone--including myself.

That said, I stand by what I wrote--I don't know too many folks in this part of the country...nor any part of the country...who have killed their own dinner at least once in their lives--just to know what the true cost of it is, mind you. And at 63 years old, I haven't known all that many in my entire life who have done...despite having spent most of my life around ranch and rural people (although I will grant you that it is far more common in such communities). Take a guess at what percentage of the population in this country, however, can make such a claim...I suspect it isn't over 10%.

Do you make your own bread every week? Some do, but most don't. Not where I live, not anywhere I've ever lived.

As for the rest, I know from reading posts here that many people talk quality and buy expedient. Again, myself included. I've got an old Harris tweed sport coat that I've got half torn apart trying to convert to a highland jacket. But it will never be a proper highland jacket. And I know it...I know it because for over 35 years I've made the better part of my living working with my hands...making shoes--a 19th century trade that exists at the margins and mercy of the greater society, subsisting on what can objectively be called 19th century wages.

In the 19th century a pair of quality shoes may have cost...say, $100.00. But it was the equivalent of $1000.00 in today's wages. Most people today, still want to pay $100.00 for a pair of shoes and balk at anything more. Even if I weren't a shoemaker, I'd still be insulted by that attitude, but especially when confronted with talk of how good a pair of Allen Edmonds are. Or to keep us on topic, how good a $100.00 kilt is.

And if we, as individuals, spend the better part of our lives and life energy looking for ways to avoid buying quality...looking for substitutions and short cuts, endlessly, endlessly...our society will end up with no one who knows how to do anything but make plastic flip-flops. We're very near that point now.

So I guess we have to take our insults where we can find them. As a shoemaker, I feel eminently qualified to suggest that if the shoe fits, wear it.