Originally posted by DerekTheGreat
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You are right in that sometimes good enough is indeed just that, and it makes little sense to move away from it - be it for financial reasons, or difficulties in manufacturing, or just plain lack of any actual need to do so. But more often that not there is room for improvement, and said improvement is actually beneficial in some way or another. Yes drum brakes are often good enough, but have you had the opportunity to drive the same vehicle under the same conditions after a 4-wheel disc swap with proper brakes (like OEM parts off a newer model)? It's a quite noticeable difference, whether you believe that or not is up to you. Yes non-ABS braking is good enough most of the time, but RABS is better, and full 4-wheel 4-channel ABS + traction control + vehicle stability can be pure awesomeness if done right (and nowadays most of them are). Yes regular 3-point belts are often good enough, but 5-point racing harness is usually better, and an airbag in every nuke and cranny available gives you a pretty good chance to walk out of an accident that 20-30 years ago would have killed your ass on the spot. Yes carburetors got the job done, but fuel injection made sure the job is done all the time every time pretty much regardless of the environment, and nowadays forced induction adds on to the general efficiency of the whole thing. And so on and so forth.
It's called progress, and it's got little to do with the rat race. Yes, it can be taken into extremes, and nowadays it's done so arguably way too often, but even that really depends on the point of view. You may not need an "infotainment" system with full internet access and direct and automatic connectivity to Facebook, Twitter, and God knows what other social networking crap, I may not need it either, but someone out there does - so they get the option to get it in their vehicle, and you and I still have the option of ordering a new vehicle without one. You may not need a backup camera, but I got an 8ft wide 4ft (or more) tall wall of truck body that I can't see shit around - so you skip the extra electronic gadgets, while I'm going for them. Ultimately "good enough" is anything but universal, it's highly subjective and as long as there are still folks for whom "good enough" is really "at best barely adequate" someone will always be trying to push forward - or as you call it remake the wheel. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with comparing what you got to what someone else has done - not everyone approaches the same issue in the same manner, I'd says it's actually pretty fuckin stupid to NOT look around to see if someone somewhere out there hasn't come up with a better solution than yours.
The real problem is not who does what technological advances and for what reason, it's when that becomes the mandatory standard and everything else has to either comply or die. Which is currently the case with emissions regulations in some parts of the world (certainly not exclusive to the US). We usually still have a choice here, mostly due to the power of the individualism of all these people who you bitch about. Yes they may all want mostly the same thing, but they all want it done in their own individual way, and that's what still keeps us free for the most part. When all these folks fold and give in and start settling for "good enough", that's when we'll all be fucked. Then you won't be able to drive your old shit anymore, because it will be forced off the road for actually not being "good enough" - ever think about that?
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