> Meanwhile fridges from the 1960s are still humming along fine.
Fridges that you see from the 1960s are still humming along fine. All the ones that broke decades ago get none of your attention. This is survivorship bias. Reliability of products like fridges has gone up immensely over the last 50 years.
I'm not sure about the 1960s, but generally all appliances have gotten quite a bit cheaper and had less durability and repairability since the eighties. There was a step change in the late nineties both in price and quality when production moved to China.
That might be true. But I don't think there will be ANY of the model of fridge I had running at 20 years old. Survivorship bias can't account for plastic that crumbles from being heat-cycled.
Fridges that you see from the 1960s are still humming along fine. All the ones that broke decades ago get none of your attention. This is survivorship bias. Reliability of products like fridges has gone up immensely over the last 50 years.