if we were not a consumer-driven society? Have you ever really thought about that?  The malls and Wal-Mart would go away. All of those millions of square feet of shelving stocked to the brim with merchandise just in case you want to buy something. AND WE MUST BUY AND BUY AND BUY TO KEEP THE MONSTER FED.  If we bought things that lasted our lifetimes which were passed down, this economy would be much different. To bring an improvement to market, there has to be the incentive of enough sales to pay for the initial investment. Do you honestly think all these stores could stay open, stocked to the brim with truly durable goods at reasonable prices, when people would not need to buy anything (except for clothes) more than once or at most twice in a lifetime?

I'm not saying this would be a bad thing, I am just saying it would be different. Shopping as recreation would vanish because money would be scarce and the purchasing power of a dollar very high. It is easy to disparage the throwaway mentality, but what would replace it, and what would the repercussions be? Perhaps there would be unintended and undesired consequences for some. The smart cell phone and notebook could never have developed in a scarce-money, high-value dollar type of economy, certainly not nearly as quickly. Not saying that is a bad thing, but it is what would manifest as a result based on the laws of supply and demand, and the money supply. Be careful what you wish for...

In order for new products to sell, they must at least seem to be new and improved.  The old Hoover Citations, the Royal metal uprights, and the Sanitaires all use simple technology that can be tweaked, but not significantly altered, or its effectiveness diminishes.  Why would someone buy something newer if it looks like the old one they already have?

The consumer preference for lighter, easier, faster has been discussed to death on this forum. It has to have style and convenience appeal to sell, and sell it must in order to stay in business. The newer vacuums must use smaller high-speed motors to accommodate the trend. These of necessity burn out sooner due to their speed, composition and construction.  Effectiveness depends on a confluence of factors involving design, application of the product, and user competence, again discussed to death here.  Performance is not achieved by good design nowadays, but by the application of brute force. The trend is toward ever shorter life cycles of product. It is what people have been trained, coached, encouraged and even bribed to want. So it is what we have.

Thank you.  The older I get, the more I shake my head at the seeming lack of ability to see underlying connecting patterns and resultant consequences in what is happening, not just in vacuums, but in general. I had, what seemed to me a pretty typical education. I am finding out it was very atypical.  I am utterly aghast at the number of people my age who have their eyes glued to a screen of some sort 75% of their waking hours.  It detracts from meaningful communication, analytical thinking, and discerning courses of action free from emotional bias.  Feel free to e-mail me anytime.

When you say Hoover junior, what vintage are you speaking about? When was it manufactured?