Charlie's Angles

We all knew what a Port Orchard homeowner who had just lost his home to a fire meant when he blamed a “Chinese heater” for starting the blaze.
“Chinese” has now ethnic or cultural meaning here, but translates as “cheap.” That inexpensive components come from overseas is no longer the kiss of death, because something doesn’t need to be name-brand in order to work well. This particular heater malfunctioned and a family was unceremoniously evicted from a house that held five of its generations.
County assessment: $226,380. Real value: Priceless.
Heating costs have skyrocketed, so the property owner bought a cheap unit to help with the load. It was probably on sale, and in a nice box. The guy can be forgiven, because he is still living in a world where you buy things at a store and assume they won’t destroy you.
The economy gets scapgoated for everything, but this homeowner is one of its saddest victims. In an attempt to save a few dollars he ended up losing his house. Right now, he certainly wishes that he had chosen a more reliable (and expensive) product. But at the time, saving money seemed like a good idea. For every inexpensive item you buy there is more left to purchase other things. Like food. In this respect, it’s natural for us to select a $50 Chinese heater over the $500 Amish version if they appear to do more or less the same thing.
The current economy forces us to make decisions based on price. We buy what we can afford and save whenever possible. If a needed item is too expensive today we settle for something less so, and assume that it will suffice.
The system obviously doesn’t always work as it should. A parallel tragedy is how this has little chance of changing our behavior. We still need to pay for too many things, and with too little money.