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The PROBLEM with Capitalism - Smarter Every Day 316 (Patreon)

Published:
2026-07-26 14:01:24
Imported:
2026-09

Content

This video explores a lot of the things that I learned in the Smarter Scrubber Project. We figured out several issues in order to make the product 100% in America. I think you'll really enjoy two specific points in the video:

The fact that a bear stole a Scrubber and we have a video of it. That blew my mind.

The profit prioritization parambulator. I'd love to know what you think about it.

I hope you enjoy the video! I had no concept of how many people this project would resonate with. Thank you for supporting on Patreon! you've made this possible.

Regards,

Destin

Files

The PROBLEM with Capitalism - Smarter Every Day 316

Get a Smarter Scrubber Here: http://smarterscrubber.com Interested in Wholesale, or helping us tell the story? Here's a link: https://forms.gle/XFrLTa5b8kxSvPnu8 I would like to thank the Patrons of Smarter Every Day. They knew about this project early and helped make it happen. http://www.patreon.com/smartereveryday John is a great Dad and a good dude. Check out JJGeorge here: https://www.jjgeorgestore.com/ Our goal is to make these things 100% in America. We're building machines in order to do this. Your support is appreciated. T&C Metal Stamping https://www.tandcstamping.com/ (Ask to speak to Weston and tell him Destin sent you!) Mantle's 3D Printing for injection molds is interesting stuff. No money changed hands here.... they made a mold cavity for me to try out. A huge thanks to Ted for participating! Here's some info on what they do: https://mantle3d.com/?utm_campaign=49072534-SmarterEveryday&utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social Search Engine Podcast: Episode "The Puzzle of the All-American BBQ Scrubber" https://www.searchengine.show/the-puzzle-of-the-all-american-bbq-scrubber/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ng8xQ-SNGc ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GET SMARTER SECTION I recommend learning about the Bretton Woods Accords https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/bretton-woods-created Read about the Bretton Woods system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Smarter Every Day on Patreon http://www.patreon.com/smartereveryday Ambiance, audio and musicy things by: Gordon McGladdery https://www.ashellinthepit.com/ http://ashellinthepit.bandcamp.com/ Warm Regards, Destin

Comments

Hunter Jordan

The lighting bolt didn’t want you to lower the product quality on the perambulator. Great job instilling the critical need to maintain the knowledge transfer of the secret sauce.

Rod Montgomery

Prioritizing long-term stakeholder value (including workers and suppliers, not just shareholders) has a name: that’s the Rhineland Model of Capitalism. (Compare to the Anglo-Saxon Model more common here in the US.)

Steve Jones

I am proud to have bought one after the very first video, probably going on 2 years ago now. I still use it all the time and it's great. I am interested in making sure that the US has manufacturing capabilities in our own country, even if it makes products a little more expensive. I think our shortsighted tendency to buy whatever crap China and other countries throws at us is really bad for us in the long term, but I am definitely concerned that the price discrepancy is going to be very hard to overcome for the average struggling consumer. I think Destin was very successful with this, but he also had a head start with us as an interested audience to begin with, and I do wonder how this would have worked if this same process had occurred without the millions of us watching his videos as inspired potential customers. We need more people like Destin willing to go to the effort and not take the cheap way to higher profits at the expense of jobs for our neighbors, but I worry that not enough people care.

Nashguy207

I love my smarter scrubber it works great

pi schult

omg thank you so much ❤️‍🩹

David Williford

Profit is only a symptom of the sickness. The true sickness is greed.

Carl Wandering

Quality of American manufactured products began degrading with the elimination of inspection departments and inspectors. It started in the 1980’s. Then ISO 9001 came in, and creating minimum standards to obtain certification came into corporate fashion. Add to this the profit appetite that moved production to China. The result: poor quality, higher profits, and the rise of lower expectations and acceptance of toss away junk. I lived in this era. As an aerospace professional it continues to worry me. Product safety and reliability is in our distant past.

Brian Buonomo

I bought the scrubber as soon as i finished the first video when it dropped last year. This scrubber lives up to everything you promise. It is built to last, worth every penny and has not rusted! Thank you Destin for reinvigorating American Manufacturing and bring these concerns to the country!

Timothy Ettridge

Sorry...love your stuff, but I've had to pause the video at 38:40. I was feeling nauseous with all the handheld camera movement. Two tripods holding two cameras would have been so much better.

Rick Corbitt

Nicely done, easy to understand summary of how the U.S. has changed. Many of us elders saw this start happening about 35 years or more ago and now rarely are able to get away from it. Most U.S. citizens only care about price, so it's just snowballed. We're now simply a "buy it cheap and throw it away" society. BTW, I KNOW you guys thought of this but I don't know why you didn't simply do all of the laser printing on one side instead of the extra trouble and expense of etching on 2 sides. Please tell us.

JOHN S THURMAN

You nailed this Destin. Ethics is on life support nationwide. I suspect it is a combination of things, but I think seeing people continually rewarded in the short term for unethical decisions shifts the Overton window towards unethical behavior. I think it would be great to hear you and Matt riff on the topic on No Dumb Questions. I think this is where faith can be brought in to appropriate focus, and maybe a tie back to the principles the nation was founded on. Regardless, great video, and bonus points for the parambulator. Maybe build on the cathedral theme.

Dale E

I feel like I'm missing something with the laser. Would it not be a lot easier to engrave the flat metal before it is folded? Then it's conveyor through engraver, flip, conveyor into through next engraver? Maybe I'm missing something in the chain from sheet metal to folded handle that complicates that. You triangle is similar to the iron triangle (time, cost and scope at the corners, quality in the middle), although I like that yours has the inner boundaries and optimal area. I've seen a manager try claim it's possible to have all sides of the triangle, but they were also confused why projects kept going over the deadline, over budget, and missing features 😂

Bearded Printer

I think it's worth noting that cycle time with 3D printing is not thought of in the same light as in the industrial manufacturing world. It's often said that the best way to 3D print faster is to buy another printer. Even if it takes an hour to print a part, 1000 printers will turn that cycle time into 60 minutes/1000. That's 3.6 seconds per part.

Don Rude

Your premise in the opening of the video seems to equate capitalism (in the sense of "the entire economic system") to cheapest price rules all. Similar to the title you've used on the video. There are problems with capitalism but "lowest price tag" does not truly sum up all of capitalism.

Timothy-Douglas Alvey

Thanks for having your program alert me, so that I would watch it. I learned a few years ago, that Smarter Every Day is always “TV Worth Watching.” (Confession; I did engineering before I retired and still enjoy the thought processes. I hope to still make a few things, before I “shut down”.) Other than the Bear Problem (no opposable thumbs), I need to get your scrubber to use on my (Lodge brand) cast iron cookware. Their chain-mail scrubber slides over the cooking surfaces, without removing the crud and makes grey marks on my sink.

Keith Fleming

Destin- This is a great product and a fantastic motivation for a company. The obvious next step is to come up with other products that utilize the manufacturing methods you have developed and extend your product line. A company that specializes in American made products has a story that will sell.

Marcus Rademacher (get it right Aaron)

Hi all, the focus on short-term profit to the detriment of a business' and community's long-term interest is something that has weighed on me a lot. I heard Jack Conte (of Patreon) on Decoder a few weeks back and he recommended this book: Incorruptible, Why Good Companies Go Bad... and How Great Companies Stay Great by Eric Ries (https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Incorruptible/Eric-Ries/9798893311860) It's accurate to say it's about corporate governance, but I think that's also misleading because it's far more interesting that that phrase would imply to most folks. The book is about how companies which start focused on a real mission (not merely profit maximization) can be corrupted and "encrapify" by predators and absurd market incentives. It also talks about ways companies can prevent that, which allows a company like Costco to exist while competitors drive product quality and worker wages/quality of life to zero. I personally am struggling in my own career. I'm a mechanical engineer working in biomedical devices for a fortune 500 company. I'm sure this behavior was always present at the company, but in the last 5 years it's become really hard to see how my hard work translates into anything beyond enriching already wealthy people who have complete disdain for me and people like me. This book has helped me in my job search to look for a place where there's a true mission that helps people, not companies, and what to look for to ensure it can't be turned into yet another example of a good firm that goes bad. I hope y'all (and maybe even Destin) will consider reading the book.

smartereveryday

Said a different way Steve... I not only had the head start because of YouTube... but it's the fact that you personally have supported on Patreon that has allowed me to work on this in stealth mode for so long. Thank you.

smartereveryday

We actually didn't consider lasing on the side. We wanted it in those locations for design reasons.

smartereveryday

We tumble the handles after the press to knock off the edges. That would destroy the lasing.

Dale E

Ah makes sense. Figured I'd be missing something Nice solution then especially with consideration down to the sensor to detect hands in the machine.

Grant Pluntze

Do most people really not know this? Almost everything we buy today is a minimum viable product. We see the effects of profit maximization everywhere all the time. This country, on the whole, will ALWAYS choose money over people and it shows.

Steve Jones

I worked as a contractor for a company that had ISO 9001. My job was a valid, required work function, but somehow it didn't fall into a defined category which had been documented for the ISO certification. When the ISO inspector came around, the boss told me literally to HIDE until he went away so that my job function would not be discovered because it would cause massive paperwork to describe what I was doing, and why. It was at this point I lost all respect for the ISO certification. It is just a checkbox for a company to check, so that they can just have the ability to brag that they "earned" it, but in reality, at least at this fortune 50 company, it was just a checkbox. As for your greater comment on loss of quality, I agree with your timeline, but I generally blame the consumer. Nobody is willing to make "made in America" a priority for their buying habits. Nobody can resist buying the 99 cent plastic chinese crap instead of the $5 version widget made in America and they dont see that it is killing our industry and ability to build things locally, which as we found out especially during covid, can be quite important during an international crisis causing supply chain problems.

Steve Jones

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but at that point in the process, you dont know if you're going to label it as "with parts from Canada" or not.. which hopefully is a temporary problem, but still relevant for now.

Joshua Rittenhouse

This is awesome and thank you for everything you have put into this. I actually just bought one for my new grill for my new house, and I was totally impressed as soon as I opened it. I look forward to using it more, and I will be thinking about all the awesome people who made it whenever I use it 😄!

Andrew Price

This reminds me of that Chesterton quote about “the problem with capitalism is not too many capitalists but too few.” I do wonder why competition is only providing a weak check against all this. Are there not enough players making grill scrubbers, or are consumers so price sensitive and quality insensitive that it allows this race to the bottom?

FrivolousSquid

Edit: I apologies in advance for the long post. This video stirred something in me. Of all the jobs I had, one of the most fulfilling was when I worked in the textile manufacturing industry. I came from a multi-generational textile family but those jobs all went to China decades ago. My parents and I all lost our jobs within a couple years of each other. We didn't have a tool & die person, but I think a comparable role was the person who designed the pattern that we would create. Someone had to plan out the design, decide what color each of the thousands of threads would be, build up the weave so that the design would appear correctly, without sacrificing the integrity of the weave itself. I never got to meet that person before the mill closed, but I admired the intricacies of their work every day. Actually transforming a material into something else was an amazing feeling. (and my engineering brain also loved the automation aspect, and the fact that we were using Jacquard looms gave me bonus joy: they used punch cards before computers ever did) None of my other jobs, retail, landscaping, tech support, inventory control, warehouse logistics, SQL coding... not one of them ever gave me that level of satisfaction of *making* something. Watching the segment about sourcing the chain mail immediately had me searching for videos of chain mail manufacturing machines, and they immediately brought me back to when I was warping and weaving. It's like knitting with metal. A small thought started in the back of my mind: I should see if he's looking to hire someone to run that chain mail machine. Heck, I'd thought about reaching out before, but the fear of change silenced that. The difference now? I quit my job 10 months ago. I'm a free agent, hoping to find something that inspires me. I dismissed that thought, and kept watching. Then you mentioned Seveneves. I just so happen to have that book on my shelf. I remember looking at it this morning, at about 9am, while I was putting on my shoes, trying to recall if I'd ever read it. Hardcover. Printed in the USA a decade ago. The binding looked fresh, unbroken, unread. I decided this morning to read it this week. I know it's a complete coincidence, but that you mentioning that book was enough to un-dismiss my thought. Destin, if you're willing, I'd absolutely love to come and be a part of your team and learn how to make chain mail, if that's something you end up doing. Or something else from my past experience. Or learn something new. I'm a sponge and I love learning. I'm not too particular about what. My interests are wide and varied. This isn't about making chain mail specifically. It's about getting a foot in the door, learning a new skill, being part of a team I believe in, and being a part of something big. It doesn't have to be my next long-term career; I just want to be a part of the story.

FrivolousSquid

I had originally started typing this up as part of that comment, but it was far too long: I almost always tell this story when I train someone on a job. One day, when my mom was a weaver, most of her looms were down for repair, so they sent her to work in the mending department for the day. The mending department is where they inspect the fabric after it's woven, before any finishing is done. They scanned miles of fabric every day, looking for any defect, fix it if they could, mark it if they couldn't, and carry on inspecting. Monotonous, boring, no big deal. She learned that day why they were called menders, not inspectors. When they find a mistake - such as a skipped thread, or a broken end, or anything repairable, they would have to extract the damaged thread, and then manually sew in a new one. Across the entire 72" width of the fabric. It was very detailed work, and could take up to an hour to fix a single mistake. And that mistake that took them an hour? They almost always happened at spots in the fabric when the loom stopped for the weaver to fix something in the weaveroom. The looms could sense when a single thread broke, and signal a weaver to fix it. Adn the weaver would come over, replace the empty bobbin, or re-tie the broken warp thread, or whatever it took to get the loom up and running again. The mistake was already in the fabric when the weaver fixed the issue. But it didn't have to be. They could reverse the loom one step at a time. They could back out the mistake. It only took a few seconds. A few seconds at the loom to fix a mistake that the next person in the production chain might have to spend hours fixing. She cried when she realised that. She came back to her looms the next day. She was a better weaver for it. I almost always tell this story when I train someone on a job. I encourage them to cross-train in other jobs adjacent to theirs. It's not just about your job. It's about the person before you. It's about the person after you. Everyone is someone's customer, and someone else's supplier, and we should take the time to understand the impacts our work has on those around us.

The Morton Fam

How do I find American-made stuff that is ACTUALLY made in America? My budget won't allow me to buy strictly American made, but I have purchased supposedly "American-made" only to have it arrive with a Made in China sticker/packaging. I'm still working on raising/caring for kids and probably not going to get into injection molding, so outside of buying a scrubber (check!), what else can I do? The profit prioritization parambulator was BRILLIANT. I loved it. Simple and easy to understand. Thanks, Destin. Between that and the flannelgraph stuff from last year, you're ready to break into the homeschool curriculum market!

luke

Once again you made me interested in a “boring” subject, awsome. I would be super interested in you looking into a company called oak and willow in Canada, they have a very different business structure that aligns with you values of putting people and quality first and profit follows

Dale E

Well that's solved by engraving separate batches of america and canada ones. Then keep them separate as is currently done with the chain mail only only assemble like for like. But you're right it is extra complication that introduces risk things would get mixed up.

Adam Schindler

The consumer is the ultimate decider. This is very much a "We have met the enemy and he is us." Problem.

Jordan Slavish

As a high school manufacturing teacher, I think about turn around time a lot. There is essentially zero curriculum out there, and the majority of administrators don't know the difference between a welder and a lathe, let alone that they are different trades. The alarm is sounding on an aging workforce, and students LOVE this stuff, but bridging that gap from 3D printed fidgets to skilled trade pathways is a real challenge to do at the micro level, let alone at scale across the education system. Thank you for your work exploring and showcasing this process!

Suzanne Moulton

Where is the plastic manufactured? Could that be sourced from American recycling?

M Free

As a Canadian working in California, any way to specifically get one with the Canadian chain mail?

Jeremy J.

This project lit a bonfire of purpose for me. After the first video I bought 10 Smarter Scrubbers and gave them to friends and clients along with a complimentary lecture on the state of American manufacturing. I rededicated myself to teaching American workers and students how to use technology and innovation to build better products, businesses and communities. Thank for inspiring me and for the "Hollywood Square"!

Brad Day

Thank you for illustrating the massive amount of work that goes into making a product that is also made in the USA. I developed a product and for the past 12 years I've run into many of the same challenges, and our product isn't event particularly complicated to make! Between Chinese companies ripping off our designs, changing markets and regulations and trying to keep all the production in the USA, I'm constantly amazed we've been able to keep it going. We also have amazing customers, just like the Smarter Scrubber. Well done, Team Smarter!

Kalo

Thank you soo much for all you do. I am proud of you and I feel hope that we can bring back security in manufacturing to our great nation. Thanks for putting my clip in the video. It was a big deal for me and it made my day when a young man who I mentor. Texted me and said in all caps YOUR IN A SMARTER EVERYDAY VIDEO! Thanks for the cool points.

Kalo

So glad you had video of that.

Max Goldstein

You alluded to this with the American wire processed in Canada but: how far back are you sourcing from the US? Steel made here? Iron mined here? Iron mined with machines made here? (cf "I Pencil")

Bryan Pate

Great video. I was a bit surprised at the laser etching portion since my scrubber doesn’t have any etching. I ordered fairly early - was this a later add to the product?

Jirka Pech

Nice example of the working ESG project. 👏 Breaking the intellect chain by companies in China is what killed the automotive industry all over the world (except China of course). Also, thanks everyone for making the dream work. And thank you, Destin, for mentioning Cory D.'s work.👍 What's next with the tools you now have in the workshop (supply chain)? 🤔

Moira Atkinson

Everything you said there is absolutely true. It really frustrates me how greed is the only consideration for most people when it comes to consumer buying. The only way to change that used to be not selling the cheap imports, but that doesn’t work now we have the internet. I’m a believer in supporting local industries, particularly the way vital resources are lost in remote areas. We had a home in a rural setting and I was happy to buy petrol at the local garage, buy groceries in the village shop and use the local post office. Plenty of people wouldn’t though. They’d drive to the nearest town for supplies because they’d save money. Maybe what’s needed is a government which subsidises locally made products which don’t exploit workers. Enable people to sell a reasonably priced product, which doesn’t compromise quality and safety in an effort to maximise profit ie greed. Both the manufacturers and the consumers are greedy in a capitalist society. I thought Destin made a great point in not allowing skills to atrophy. We’ve seen how that’s affecting the development of a spaceship capable of landing people on the moon already. In addition, you can get a job done without really understanding the process and just allowing a program to do it for you. But that way, you’re going to have nobody who can see when there’s been a computer error until (for example) a building collapses because nobody recognised the process was flawed. It seems few people value self reliance nowadays.

Carl Wandering

I totally agree. In my state, which now over 35% of the residents are on welfare forever, no businesses relocate here, they leave. Now the state has passed a law giving people 20 weeks total paid time off, with no questions asked! A friend employs 50 people. They are skilled workers. Many are taking the paid time off. They raised his corporate taxes. His unfortunate solution, close the business and retire. The work ethic in the USA has eroded. Welfare is an entitled permanent benefit. I know a person that was under 40 and received full disability. Her disability was not being able to work with people! She was very happy getting over $3000 a month not working. So, our country is suffering from sending business off shore, partly because lower cost, and partly because some people receive free everything on welfare with no intentions of ever working. It’s now a political issue with the rise of socialism and communism in our capitalistic based republic. The reality compared to communist China is they work jobs for little pay. I cannot see the people on welfare in the US ever going to work for less than the current welfare perpetual entitlement.

J A

Let's face it. Countries whose population is willing to work for less, resulting in a lower standard of living compared to the United States, will always be able to manufacture products cheaper, even of similar quality. Tariffs simply tend to lower the quality of the products manufactured overseas.

Rezwan Razani

My great grand uncle was a co-inventor of the Acme-Gridley multi-spindle automatic screw machine, which seems to be a device you would appreciate and could be configured to help with some of your components. Your video makes me wonder how similar the invention process was for those guys back then. I feel like I'm watching history repeat itself. Check out this summary video of the invention and business history here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BJrfbLa7dg - Apparently there are still many of these machines out there in the wild, still working, although much of manufacturing went overseas and to machines with more computer programming. Apologies for the AI nature of the video, but much of the info checks out. So, yay, an upside to AI for putting that together.

Nate Hoppes

I know this is off topic but I had the idea to add a lead wire hoop to the edge of a MVP golf disc which would add stability by giving more angular momentum due to the increased weight at the edge. Could any actual engineers let know if my shower thought mind calculations actually add up?

WhiteMtHomesteader

Can you consider making a smarter flipper next? Everyone I find bends.

Mando

If you haven't yet, take a look at this video where he takes on the idea that you cannot produce the knobs through 3d printing - good take on comparing the system and not the individual item. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3ViXSLH_ZM

victoryt99

I loved your sales pitch at the end

SlvrScoobie

My scrubbers so early it’s not even laser engraved! I saw that in the new video and had to go check. ‘Wait - they’re engraved? Nope. Not mine’ I’ll wear that with a bradge of pride. :)

Andrew Ahern

Oh no, workers have PTO, the horror! Here’s your sign you’re part of the problem Carl. Oh no, an employer with 50 people won’t someone think of the petty bourgeoisie?

Kyrius Liaison

My scrubber just arrived. Gave the grill a good clean (with the Flecktones' Star Spangled Banner running in my head the whole time) and have just a tiny bone to pick with Destin: when you talk about this tool, you don't give the scraper enough love! To refer to this insanely well-designed crack and crevice cleaner as just a handle is an insult to the work and thought you clearly put into it. Angles, lengths, how the bend in the handle functions as a thumb groove for applying real elbow grease... yeah, the scrub head is awesome, but for my money the big win is in the scraper. Thanks for all you do.

Peter Fiala

Hey Dustin, thanks for the great video! I really appreciate the diagrams attached to the explanations of these things, having both helps a lot. One question that pesters me after this video, is whether your business model is viable long-term in the market without dependency on effective government regulation. One lynchpin of this argument is that low-quality products were pulled out of the market. One recurring tragedy I've seen is that higher-quality lower-profit companies are choked out by low-cost low-ethics competitors. Won't this keep happening to you and other companies unless global-level regulations can be enforced? Is our only hope to have efficient and ethical regulations from a huge government? That's only ever half-true in the best of administrations... Is community-level goodwill in any way a worthy opponent to the power of capital? I don't want to be naive...

Pavol Vaskovic

Blaming the consumer? That’s the tail on the dog…

BurntEnds

I have grumbled for decades about American businesses voluntarily sending American jobs overseas. They save money, but lose control of the quality, and they risk (or maybe ensure) the creation of sweatshops “over there somewhere.” Of course, you expounded so much more eloquently than I about causes, effects, and ethics of the expatriation of manufacturing. I am so proud that you made this product! I bought several the first round for family members. I intend to buy more this time and I figure out who to give them to. I know I’m a tiny blip in making your venture a success, but I expect there will be countless others like me who see the value of this product as well as the value of the ethics behind it.

Leroy Johnson

Do you all fear that moving to say Walmart scale would interfere with the mission, or would the scale help American manufacturing.

Almaz Mingaleev

Great video! However, the attempt to bring back the good old days is probably wrong as we were already there and what we have now is the consequence of that.

Andi

During some of the interviews in this manufacturing episode you mentioned you love fasteners and would like to do more in this direction as it is virtually impossible to source in the USA at acceptable cost. Coming from the epicenter of European micro machining here in Biel/Bienne, I would be very interested in assisting to do something in the USA in this regards. Perhaps my message gets heard by Destin 😉🫡. I am in manufacturing and I deeply believe more things could be done closer to a market if one can cut the learning curve by collaborating with people in the know.