4 ms·

>Maintenance is something very, very specifically Western. Yep, no other cultures maintain anything.

derefr 9y ago
Maintaining things coincidentally, and thinking in terms of there being such an activity as "maintenance" that you might want to start doing on any given thing if you aren't doing it already, are different things. I can believe that some cultures have no concept of "Total Cost of Ownership" distinct from purchase price, for example.
euske 9y ago
This is pretty laughable. To me, almost every Western country is half-broken. When I lived in the US, I was surprised how frequent power faults were there. Streets are full of bumps and corroded pipes were everywhere. And in Europe. Do they have any concept of a decent public bathroom over there? Oh, and don't get me started on how badly their trains are operating. I bet that many train accidents are due to the poor maintenance. It's probably true that maintenance is less paid an attention in poor countries, and there are more non-Western countries that are poor. But it's funny that people can get away with a claim like this. It almost sounds like a white supremacist to me. TL;DR: Japan is nice.
- avn2109 9y ago
  The GP quote contrasts "the West" to Russia, which is itself overwhelmingly White. It's hard to see a white supremacist angle on a comparison between two majority-white blocs.
  - pjc50 9y ago
    In the taxonomy of white supremacists, Russians are "slavic". This was literally part of Hitler's justification for invading eastwards. ("Whiteness" is not simply about skin colour. There's a fascinating/ugly history of how various immigrant groups to America became "white")
- taneq 9y ago
  Yeah, Japan was my first thought when I read that. You can't tell me with a straight face that they don't maintain everything to within an inch of its life.
  - animal531 9y ago
    Ironically except for the single most maintained item in the west, which is a house. In Japan they are treated as basically disposable.
    - taneq 9y ago
      Gotta have a gold sink in your economy somewhere to fight inflation.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- 77pt77 9y ago
  > TL;DR: Japan is nice. True, but was also devastated by a war that allowed rebuilding almost from scratch.

Maintaining things coincidentally, and thinking in terms of there being such an activity as "maintenance" that you might want to start doing on any given thing if you aren't doing it already, are different things. I can believe that some cultures have no concept of "Total Cost of Ownership" distinct from purchase price, for example.

euske 9y ago

This is pretty laughable. To me, almost every Western country is half-broken. When I lived in the US, I was surprised how frequent power faults were there. Streets are full of bumps and corroded pipes were everywhere. And in Europe. Do they have any concept of a decent public bathroom over there? Oh, and don't get me started on how badly their trains are operating. I bet that many train accidents are due to the poor maintenance. It's probably true that maintenance is less paid an attention in poor countries, and there are more non-Western countries that are poor. But it's funny that people can get away with a claim like this. It almost sounds like a white supremacist to me. TL;DR: Japan is nice.

avn2109 9y ago
The GP quote contrasts "the West" to Russia, which is itself overwhelmingly White. It's hard to see a white supremacist angle on a comparison between two majority-white blocs.
- pjc50 9y ago
  In the taxonomy of white supremacists, Russians are "slavic". This was literally part of Hitler's justification for invading eastwards. ("Whiteness" is not simply about skin colour. There's a fascinating/ugly history of how various immigrant groups to America became "white")
taneq 9y ago
Yeah, Japan was my first thought when I read that. You can't tell me with a straight face that they don't maintain everything to within an inch of its life.
- animal531 9y ago
  Ironically except for the single most maintained item in the west, which is a house. In Japan they are treated as basically disposable.
  - taneq 9y ago
    Gotta have a gold sink in your economy somewhere to fight inflation.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
77pt77 9y ago
> TL;DR: Japan is nice. True, but was also devastated by a war that allowed rebuilding almost from scratch.