There are still good domestically made products out there, you just have to be willing to go somewhere other than the big box stores to find it. And pay the price. You really do get what you pay for.
So many products are outsourced to Asia due to cheap labor, as well as a lot less red tape for manufacturing. No EPA in China, no one protesting that the local factory is giving frogs upset stomachs, etc. The real fault IMO is the consumer, the average person wants products at the lowest possible prices regardless of overall quality. They also sit idly by and let the politicians and the union bosses destroy what is left of our manufacturing infrastructure for their own power and profit.
Where did you buy the doorknobs that failed? I can go down to my local hardware store and buy doorknobs and locks that would survive WW3, the ones I see at Walmart I wouldn't trust to survive my dogs jumping on the door wanting in. The local small businessman needs your help. I avoid Walmart for anything I can buy from a local small business. I don't really pay that much more for better quality items, and my money stays in the local economy. I am not saying to be fanatical about it, like sew your own clothes and make soap out of your wood ash, but if this country keeps going in the direction it has, we may all have to
The other problem is from an engineering standpoint. We have become a throwaway society. Not only because of cheap quality products, but because so many are designed to be unrepairable. I have had to replace a number of items over the years because I couldn't repair them due to design, or the replacement parts simply are unavailable. This for even some simple items.
I was raised to use it up, wear it out, and reuse it for something else. These days they use fancy terms like "direct recycling" and make it sound like it's something they just came up with. But until recently in this country it was a way of life. Your grandparents couldn't just go down to the store and buy another when something broke, they fixed it until it couldn't be fixed again. But then, it was designed and built to be fixable, and the parts were generic enough to be used in other ways when the original item was just shot through.
Cars are a great example. I didn't need a computer, thousands of dollars in specialized equipment and a degree in engineering to fix my truck. I could set my points with a matchbook cover if I had to. If I was stuck on the side of the road, I just had to go through the "big three" to analyze the problem, and could usually fix it up enough with my toolbox and some odds and ends from behind the seat to get me home to where I could fix it right. The motor could be rebuilt with pretty basic tools when the time came, and when all else failed, parts could be used on something else, like a tractor or field pump, or the engine could be used to drive stationary equipment with a simply pulley. Speaking of which, a lot of trucks had that pulley already on the drive shaft to run equipment!
Despite it all, consumer demand still runs the show in the end. If the majority of people in this country would make a stand, and refuse to buy the crap products, and demand quality and repair-ability in products, the manufacturers would do it, because that is where the money would be. I just don't see that happening, as most folks seem to want cheap and easy too much. We can't even get them out form in front of the TV long enough to vote.
