This might just be a knee-jerk reaction (like the Mustang - its a research

question).



Fil wrote:



Europe, Japan, and China are quite different.  They all have their own

problems, of course, but they have a richer culture informing them

about......



......Fil, surely the last century - was built on American culture.



Arguably, there wouldn't be a discussion on this subject - without it. US

culture is not merely a product of the last 300 years either - it is a

diaspora of the indigenous and imported cultures that created the US.



In fact I would even argue the opposite - the US has such a breadth of

culture to draw upon, it creates a kind of  inertia and sometimes lack of

focus - what is America? For example, is Chinese culture - richer than

American culture?



You might argue also the US has SUVs just because it can have them. I

notice places with 'richer culture' such as the UK - not slow on their

uptake either.....



Historically, I believe the US is also the only country to actively help

rebuild two countries that it had a major part in destroying. By this I

mean - rebuild them as their own entity - not a mere part of an Empire.  I

may be incorrect - but it is something from way back.



Ironically - it's two biggest competitors - before China - are the two it

helped rebuild.



On another note - cars are not the only things repackaged around minimal

innovation.



Apart from breakthroughs like the microwave and miniaturisation of

batteries (cell phones) - little has fundamentally changed over past 20-30

years. Things like CCDs and digital are new - yet arguably still inferior

to analog.



Yes - things are smaller and cheaper - but not necessarily 'better'.



Hand tools, furniture, cutlery, houses, jobs, education, humour, food,

clothing, toys, the stuff that surrounds our life.



I would very be surprised if our current 'hyper modern' age is any better

at all - (thanks to Eduardo for Hyper Modern).



It strikes me as odd for example that a 'vintage' guitar (35 yrs)  costs

30,000 and a version today 1,000 dollars.



Is our sterile 'segmentation' of the market and 'niche' mass-produced

targeted goods destroying what we set out to achieve?



Will the things we create today - ever cost 30 times more their value- in

less than 40 years?



Maybe we need that robot designer to get us out of this 'lull period'.



Finally, the US always gets a bad rap - culturally, historically and

intellectually. Rap.....



At this point I created a small list - much like the great scene in Monty

Python's Life of Brian - “What did the Romans ever give us?”



Food, peace, law, water, etc. You get the idea.



From Eduardo's parallel observation - on where we might be from a

civilisation point of view - the US has achieved several monumental points

in human development. Some of them good, some of them bad.



No I am not a blind supporter of a country that can and does err - but as

an industrial designer - at least putting credit where its due (and thanks

by the way, for inventing industrial design too).







--------------------------

Glenn Johnson

Director, B/E Aerospace Industrial Design Studio

tel. +1 336 744 3143

fax. +1 336 744 3207