Not so very long ago when things broke down we took them to the magician in the repair shop who rixed them up as good as new. Now we mostly throw them away and buy something new.
What are the pros and cons of a throwaway culture?
Cons are way too many to mention, greed, selfishness, lack of caring for goods and increasingly people, environmental pollution, land-fill pressures, waste of precious resources, etc.. too many to mention
We had a question the other day (might have been from Whistle 6) that virtually asked if people were made with built-in obsolescence. That was painfully close to being true. :(
For many items replace is the better and more affordable choice. When my previous laptop died I could purchase a new part for $80. It carried no guarantee of success. So, being that the laptop was several years old it was a better choice to up date and replace.
At one time a person had to find a certain rock and chip it to make an axe or a knife blade. They averaged 1 1/2 inches of cutting edge from a pound of flint. But after a while they were averaging almost five feet of cutting edge per pound. It is the nature of the human animal to find improved methods of production and make things more convenient and more efficient.
So now we have developed manufacturing to the point that it is cheaper to make a new gizmo than to fix one. You can have a microwave oven for 75 bux, but if there were a repair shop it would cost a hundred bux just to walk through the door.
You want to whine because things are so cheap? Is that correct?
Well Dozy, for a LONG time I was in the fix 'em-keep 'em going camp...then I took my projector to a repair shop, and they said Yes we can fix it, cost $X. But when I came back they said Well we could not fix it after all, but we still have to charge you the $X because it took all that time to figure out we could not fix it!
Adaydreambeliever 