I used to love buying from L.L. Bean.

The novelty of shopping 24-hours a day by phoning a friendly customer service representative in Freeport, Maine was simply incredible back in the early 1980’s. Moreover, what you bought was built to last. I still have my canvas barn coat, my winter boots, my wrought-iron lamps, and my maple end tables, among other items that have given me great service over many decades.

Shopping as a whole has, of course, undergone some peculiar changes over the past few decades, and it has been a very long time since I’ve found customer service to be so friendly as in the past. Moreover, the nature of much of what we buy today has undergone a startling and often unwelcome transformation: It is more flimsy, constructed with lower quality craft and materials—and is explicitly designed to be disposable.

Not that I want to seem a total Luddite, but has anyone purchased a major appliance lately? These typically feature thin metal, lots of plastic, a fragile microchip at the center of it all—and are doomed to die prematurely. I shudder at the prospect of replacing my old washing machine, which is a true dinosaur with buttons, dials, and a sturdy unpretentiousness that focuses of the mundane tasks of filling, swishing, spinning, and draining. I’ve seen the overpriced tinware now available, and I’m underwhelmed by all the “smart” features that are supposed to substitute for the brainless durability and reliability I used to foolishly expect when I bought a household appliance. Many seem to max out at about 5-6 years of service instead of the decades that were common in the past—planned obsolescence at its best. Built to last doesn’t exist anymore.

Some items are meant to be disposable. Few are interested to reusing a paper tissue or saving the wrapper from a head of cabbage. However, the short life cycles of so much of what we purchase as individuals or as a society are much the same as the truncated careers of American workers since employers started shipping jobs off-shore or, as is increasingly true today, letting Artificial Intelligence or robotic tools do the work instead.

The trash products we many times have no choice but to buy often closely track the trash jobs that many American workers must slog today through. The multi-generational damage suffered by families and communities from what is euphemistically referred to as “free trade” (instead of obscenely profitable piracy) is already a sad fact of life, and manufacturers hate the idea of tariffs interfering with their continued efforts to “off-shore” production to countries where wages are far lower. Profits are, of course, necessary for any business, but these must not come at a terrible cost to our nation and people. Our leaders have spent decades trading campaign contributions for their complicity in selling out American workers, which explains why so many voters are beyond fed up with the false promises and brazen lies of politicians today.

Although any student of history will understand that Communism and the Communism-lite of Socialism (Democratic or not) are paths to governmental tyranny and economic decline, it is easy to understand why desperate voters fall for the siren songs of Leftist (and clueless) Mayors such as Zohran Mamdani in New York or Katie Wilson in Seattle. Being all too ready to believe that their Robin Hood policies of taxation will will actually work, voters clinging to the very margins of comfort and security are easy prey for leaders who promise much but end up delivering only more pain because the arithmetic just doesn’t (and will never) add up.

Many basically decent but cynical Americans have used up their last reserves of desperate hope, so doctors are doing a fine business writing prescriptions for anti-depressants while bartenders and drug dealers pick up the medication needs of the rest of those who are sad, frustrated, and at the end of their patience. Destructive reliances on drugs and alcohol are the refuges of those robbed of their dreams—and their dignity.

The consequences are everywhere we look. Pride in our work disappears if we come to expect only what is cheap and shoddy in our own homes and lives. When we learn the hard way that we are considered easily replaceable parts instead of valued employees, our commitment to diligent work quickly becomes cynical clock watching, and this cycle of disillusionment feeds upon itself with each new generation while we grow accustomed to having no respect for ourselves or others. Trash, in a phrase, begets trash—and trashiness—so stupid people behaving stupidly (and advertising their stupidity on the omnivorous monster of social media) is a perfectly logical endpoint for far too much of America today.

We have now reached a point when voter anger becomes a lust for swift retribution. Elected officials at the state and federal levels who have spent decades assuming we will readily swallow their lies are discovering that many voters are today demanding immediate arrests and long prison sentences to excise the tumor of shameless corruption that has enriched the favored few at the expense of the forgotten many.

Everyone now knows that fraud and theft are everywhere—and generally go unpunished. The overpaid consultants and duplicitous talking heads often seem unaware of the raw anger running through so much of our nation—their utter befuddlement regarding the election and re-election of President Trump perfectly illustrates their obliviousness—and I expect the election cycles this year and beyond are going to pack a unexpected wallop for the felons and fools now in elected office.

It is not revolution that is in the air—it is disgust. Those who expect “business as usual” are in for a heck of a shock, and the smooth talkers and sleaze bags who have profited from manipulating our good will and patriotism for many years are likely to be stunned by our snarling citizenry.