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Today's tech can be cheap and repairable. Buying a PC in parts is not that more expensive than buying than a box from a retailer. The framework laptop is compl

Today's tech can be cheap and repairable. Buying a PC in parts is not that more expensive than buying than a box from a retailer. The framework laptop is completely competitively priced with laptops of equivalent specs. DIY audio enthusiasts can buy speaker kits that have amazing performance for one third of the price of the "ready" one, and if a speaker or the amp goes bad, they don't need to buy a whole new kit. It's consumers themselves that got that into that mindset that is not worth to invest time into building and repairing things. We need to start attaching a cost to disposing of obsolete tech, and you can bet they will quickly remember that they too are capable of doing things.

taneq 5y ago
I mean, it won't be, but it CAN.
sokoloff 5y ago
I bought a low-end Chromebook for $92.44 delivered last week. Other than the charge adapter or USB-C cable, there's literally nothing that makes any economic sense to attempt to repair. Even something as bounded as replacing the battery is likely to make no sense several years down the road.
- rglullis 5y ago
  Because everything is integrated, and like I said you are not paying for the cost of disposing it. If electronics are getting to the point that they are as disposable as a plastic bottle, perhaps we should start treating them as such. In Germany, every recyclable (plastic/glass/aluminum) container has a surcharge of a few cents, which you get back by returning them to any supermarket. Imagine if we made something similar for consumer electronics. A tax on electronics products, it being higher in correlation with the level of integration, the difficulty to repair. Your chromebook would be taxed at 100% if sold as a whole package, but if Google decided to produce modules that are independently sold, the tax would drop. Suddenly the whole equation changes for everyone. Manufacturers will have the incentive to produce less integrated products and consumers will have more choice to upgrade/replace only parts of their equipment. Your first-time cost is "higher", but onward you realize that you can upgrade the every three years and the board for $20, the screen last 5 years and costs $40, the battery is $15, etc.

taneq 5y ago

I mean, it won't be, but it CAN.

sokoloff 5y ago

I bought a low-end Chromebook for $92.44 delivered last week. Other than the charge adapter or USB-C cable, there's literally nothing that makes any economic sense to attempt to repair. Even something as bounded as replacing the battery is likely to make no sense several years down the road.

rglullis 5y ago
Because everything is integrated, and like I said you are not paying for the cost of disposing it. If electronics are getting to the point that they are as disposable as a plastic bottle, perhaps we should start treating them as such. In Germany, every recyclable (plastic/glass/aluminum) container has a surcharge of a few cents, which you get back by returning them to any supermarket. Imagine if we made something similar for consumer electronics. A tax on electronics products, it being higher in correlation with the level of integration, the difficulty to repair. Your chromebook would be taxed at 100% if sold as a whole package, but if Google decided to produce modules that are independently sold, the tax would drop. Suddenly the whole equation changes for everyone. Manufacturers will have the incentive to produce less integrated products and consumers will have more choice to upgrade/replace only parts of their equipment. Your first-time cost is "higher", but onward you realize that you can upgrade the every three years and the board for $20, the screen last 5 years and costs $40, the battery is $15, etc.