High goods prices relative to wages force you to learn to fix stuff if you want to, like, have things that work (or, at least, they encourage quite a few people

High goods prices relative to wages force you to learn to fix stuff if you want to, like, have things that work (or, at least, they encourage quite a few people to learn how to fix stuff, so they can do it for others, for pay). High wages relative to goods prices means everything's disposable. I might try to repair a $300 toaster. I might pay someone else to repair a $600 toaster. I'm not going to try to repair a $20 toaster, and I'm sure as shit not gonna pay someone else to fix it. I'll just buy a new toaster. [EDIT] incidentally, saying "there's too much waste of X" is, in most cases, nearly identical to saying "X is too cheap". See: food waste. "Why do we waste so much food?!" because it's so cheap relative to labor that it's not worth the effort to waste less of it.