[dandelionsnow]

Handcrafted artisinal stuff is a luxury because that's the only niche that makes economic sense for it now, given mass production and other recent developments (too lazy to list, sorry).

Consider how you can't really get by in most of America without a car because we designed our cities to require them. It would be a mistake to conclude that, because life is harder in a car-optimized society without a car, society must be better off optimizing for cars.