He who wears glasses will replace them sooner

It started innocently enough (maybe): the car manufacturers created headlight lenses made out of plastic instead of the clearer and more expensive glass. If you have an older car you would know by now that plastic headlights become clouded and need replacing or resurfacing (which usually leads to replacing anyway as you melt through the flimsy plastic as you try to clean it). What a pain. I am surprised that in the land of lawsuits nobody has brought suit to the dangers of plastic headlights in order to get the car manufacturers to use the more clear and longer lasting glass headlight lenses. You see, apparently, the ability to see at night diminishes with how old the headlight lenses are, as opposed to how older you get. I could have saved a trip to the eye doctor if I knew. Maybe the car manufacturer can comp me the eye doctor exam.
But here comes the kicker: eye-wear lenses are also made out of plastic -- the eye places are considering stopping glass lenses altogether. I still have glasses from 30 years ago, that I can see through, amde out of crystal. But the glasses I bought 4 years ago, made in the USA- not France, from lenscrafters (the name does not imply that they are craftsmen -- they could not get the lens centers to line up with my eyes) are heading to the garbage. I went to lenscrafters and this was the exchange:

• Me: Something's wrong with my glasses. All of a sudden I cannot clean them.
• her: They are scratched.
• Me: How can they be scratched? I did not scratch them. I clean them every day the same way. Wait a second, these are plastic, aren't they? Does it matter how old they are?
• her: Yes, these are very old. We do not even sell (picture vile dripping from the voice and an implied "stupid-old") Nike frames anymore.
• Me: Old? I did not think they are old. Can you tell how old they are? (I gave her my info - she looked it up).
• her: They are 4 years old.
• Me: So? That's old?
• her: That's old.
• Me: Can you fix them?
• her: No. Lenses must be replaced.

I left because they do not take my insurance any more. 

But I was thinking: When did it become that glasses (which cost more than what the blue book value of my car was) are a disposable product -- when your script remains the same and the frame is sturdy enough? It's not like they are clothes and you wore the out. I can see that the auto industry is trying to lower their costs by selling us disposable cars, but my eye glasses are now a disposable product? Where did the quality engineering go? The way of homo erectus and homo habilis, I guess - it just vanished. Where is the business fellow that first suggested that eye glasses should become disposable. The irony of this is that Lions will lose a charity... We cannot give our plastic pitted cloudy scratched glasses to poor people any more - that would be cruel. The glasses belong in a landfill.

As a side: my car is a Chevy -- runs great, but is falling apart piece by piece: seat belt plastic crumbling exposing sharp metal components ($100 per seat-belt to replace - thank God for duct tape), headlight lens cloudy ($200 to replace - found them cheap on autoparts website for the other car) forcing me to question my night vision (I only night drive when there is a full moon), weather stripping crumbling so that I cannot take the car to a car wash unless it is a hot summer day, the blade that keeps the window from touching the door also crumbling - no more hand on the window when I drive since it turns bloody, the paint is peeling off exposing a lovely grey and rust color, lost the overdrive a few years ago but it drives great and it is a very stable car to drive with lots of power to haul and go up hills. People say to me "why don't you get a new one?" and I say: I hope some Chevy guys come across this car, you know, their final product, and maybe, just maybe, they get embarrassed enough with their product that they start making it well again.