I know you don't mean to imply this ... but this is a bit condescending.

Walmart probably more than anything else has uplifted the lives of the bottom 1/3 and given them to live at the material standard of living rivalling the middle class.

The truth is - most things we use, we don't need very high quality.

Your plates, knives, glasses? They'll outlast you.

Your clothes will as well, unless you're using them for labour, in which case people know quality matters.

The basketball you buy is not going to get worn out any time soon.

But the ability to be cookery, deck chairs, plastic anything, video games, music, sporting good, bedding etc. is basically transformational.

I do think there are quality issues (and cultural) here and there but for most part it's a pretty big win.

> I don’t see this as necessarily a good thing. People buying a bunch of low quality products that are designed to be as cheap as possible and then just tossing them in the trash when they inevitably break is terrible for the environment.

The other two options are poor people go without completely, or rich people share their wealth with poor people and lower their quality of life so poor people can raise their quality of life.