It’s happening on every e-commerce platform because it’s profitable. Etsy and Walmart for example have the exact same random cheaply manufactured Chinese goods on there

No need for the "e."

By and large, it happens everywhere. You can try to blame capitalism, but that feels like a trap. My view is that "high quality" is largely an illusion. And you start changing your view of it as you get older.

> My view is that "high quality" is largely an illusion. And you start changing your view of it as you get older.

I disagree. I'd argue your view of it is changing because you can't find high quality stuff anymore, but it used to exist.

My parents have an immersion blender that is nearly indestructible. It has been working for almost 30 years now and the damn thing never dies.

Nowadays if you go to any blender from any brand on Amazon the first comment you see is "I used it to blend some ice and it broke on the first day".

I can find high quality just fine, for the most part. It just doesn't mean the same thing. As an example, check out what most kitchens use, if you want a quality blender. And be willing to pay for it. And don't be shocked to find they have several so that they can spread the use out.

My view is seeing my friends and family fall into the trap that one quality thing will last forever. It has never worked that way. All things need maintenance. And all things that last do so in the ship of Theseus style.

Now, do we also have a problem of fully disposable things? Probably. Single vendor items will be worse at this. But I'm not convinced from evidence that it is actually worse today. So many of the "made to last" things were not used for their lifetime. Such that that is its own form of waste.