54 years ago, not bad. I thought it was a throwaway line at the time. IMDB: “Brooke (as ‘Mr. McGuire’) reportedly confided to his nephew that had he known that his character’s line about plastics in The Graduate (1967) would become as iconic as it did, he’d have invested in them himself. The plastics market purportedly took off in 1968 due to the remark.” Funny stuff. As far as Hoffman goes, he’s exactly like the movie, love him and hate him at the same time. Considering the clowns that are out there, I’d have to say he was one of the more underrated actors around.

But having the occasion to do a little plumbing yesterday it struck me just how prescient the writer Charles Webb was. Any guy when he goes down the plumbing aisle of a home improvement store knows the site of all the copper pipes and fittings. That’s gonna change. Copper wears out, plastic doesn’t. With copper, past 50 years and you are on borrowed time. Plus, copper had to be soldered (at one time), plastic pipes you just push and forget. Industry doesn’t like permanent, they like obsolescence. Whether its PVC and glued joints, or PEX and push connectors, they’re the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll see on this planet.

With the advent of plastic plumbing, copper has been kicked to the curb like VHS tapes and film cameras. Copper still has a role in electronics and electrical wiring, but there’s no point to it in plumbing. And that is a lot of demand that just went ‘poof’! I don’t know though, that’s the way it should happen, but industry has a way of looking out for itself. Roofing and cars should have went to polymers long ago, they are two ecological disasters that do not need to happen. But they have people convinced asphalt shingles and steel cars are the way to go. When I realized yesterday just how easy it was to plumb with plastic, it just made me think I wouldn’t want to own a copper mine.

30 years ago when digital cameras made film obsolete, it should have put the hurt on silver prices, it didn’t (silver emulsifiers I think is the term used in film and prints). The other thing is that this plastic revolution over the past 50 years, our elites made sure we wouldn’t be taking part in it. To make plastic requires sulfur emissions. The EPA made it impossible for industry to operate in the U.S. in the 70’s, so they forced the manufacture of plastics to China, who has essentially no environmental standards. The Environmental Protection Agency, forced the disaster we have of plastics in the oceans. There’s irony there for those who care to see it.