cheap

The latest in this.

People often confuse cheap with inexpensive.  Or use it to describe someone who tries to hold on too tightly to money.  But cheap, as I mean it here, speaks to something that's of poor quality.   Something made by someone who doesn't give a, well, you know.  A mass-produced object designed (not really, design implies intentionality) to simply break the minute you get it some.  A flimsy, rough, unpleasant thing that makes you feel sad just to be near.

A steering wheel that's too small or too thin.  Panels that don't match, things that flex where they shouldn't.  Sharp edges, hard corners, modeled plastic with little burrs.  It's a poorly written book, a website with error messages that at best insult you and at worst do nothing to help you resolve an issue.

Not everything must be expensive, but I try to avoid too many things where no attention is paid to detail, where stuff is good enough (far below what should count as good enough) or where the sole purpose is to get you to part with your money with no effort made to hoping for future purchases or an ongoing relationship with a brand.

Show me you care.  Help me understand why I should care as well.  Don't just bid something out to China hoping I'll buy it and forget about you before it breaks. (You'd think with all their nationalist pride, China would be wary of these tactics, but just shows you how much they're following the money when they're perfectly happy to be the source of the world's shoddy garbage.)