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> “Maintenance must be valued on its own terms, and that means tearing down the economic system that rejects it.” This is not how you get people to side with y

> “Maintenance must be valued on its own terms, and that means tearing down the economic system that rejects it.” This is not how you get people to side with you about the importance of maintenance. Honestly, if I have to choose between capitalism and valuing maintenance, I am going to go with capitalism every single time.

ornornor 4y ago
First, why? You’ll have to slave away at your job longer to replace things you could have otherwise repaired at a fraction of the cost, thus becoming a slave to your job to maintain your income just to keep on existing. And secondly, why? The pollution this kind of thinking generates is mind boggling and as everyone is becoming aware, we’re running out of time to avoid disaster. So, really, why?
- pessimizer 4y ago
  It's important to love capitalism, regardless of whether it has a positive effect on anything in particular. It can tell when you love it, and if it feels loved, the more likely it is to favor you.
- drstewart 4y ago
  This is still an argument for maintenance, not an argument against capitalism. Maintenance and capitalism aren't diametrically opposed.
rikroots 4y ago
I don't understand why the article assumes there's an either/or situation here (maybe it's written from a US-centric POV?); there's a lot of good money to be made from maintenance and waste management. For example here in the UK, cars have to pass an annual road-worthiness test, which gives car owners and garage owners a chance to fix things before they break. In homes, it's a requirement to have gas boilers checked annually - again maintenance. Councils and private housing associations regularly come round to check and refurbish exteriors, wiring, plumbing, etc - waiting until the house floods or burns down doesn't make economic sense to them. I worked on England's waste strategy published back in 2000. The waste hierarchy back then was "Reduce, Reuse, Refurbish, Recycle" - the promotional focus at the time was on recycling (our recycling rates were abysmal), but maintenance ( == Refurbish) was definitely part of the mix.
- switch007 4y ago
  I’d love to know what housing associations you know of that do regular proactive maintenance. My family has decades of experience as tenants and I can’t agree at all. I feel they do the complete opposite - hope that only fixing when things break be the cheaper option. Any regular checks they are a complete farce and on many occasions have actually broken things, especially regarding boilers (I wish I were joking) I do agree good money is being made on maintenance. The service is sold, it just doesn’t properly get carried out The people they send round to fix things are bluntly thick as shit and often damage more than they fix
  - rikroots 4y ago
    In my (limited) experience, smaller housing associations seem to show more care and attention than larger ones. It shouldn't be that way. As to the quality of subcontractors - I have good experiences and bad experiences. I always give feedback, even when not invited to do so.

ornornor 4y ago

First, why? You’ll have to slave away at your job longer to replace things you could have otherwise repaired at a fraction of the cost, thus becoming a slave to your job to maintain your income just to keep on existing. And secondly, why? The pollution this kind of thinking generates is mind boggling and as everyone is becoming aware, we’re running out of time to avoid disaster. So, really, why?

pessimizer 4y ago
It's important to love capitalism, regardless of whether it has a positive effect on anything in particular. It can tell when you love it, and if it feels loved, the more likely it is to favor you.
drstewart 4y ago
This is still an argument for maintenance, not an argument against capitalism. Maintenance and capitalism aren't diametrically opposed.

rikroots 4y ago

I don't understand why the article assumes there's an either/or situation here (maybe it's written from a US-centric POV?); there's a lot of good money to be made from maintenance and waste management. For example here in the UK, cars have to pass an annual road-worthiness test, which gives car owners and garage owners a chance to fix things before they break. In homes, it's a requirement to have gas boilers checked annually - again maintenance. Councils and private housing associations regularly come round to check and refurbish exteriors, wiring, plumbing, etc - waiting until the house floods or burns down doesn't make economic sense to them. I worked on England's waste strategy published back in 2000. The waste hierarchy back then was "Reduce, Reuse, Refurbish, Recycle" - the promotional focus at the time was on recycling (our recycling rates were abysmal), but maintenance ( == Refurbish) was definitely part of the mix.

switch007 4y ago
I’d love to know what housing associations you know of that do regular proactive maintenance. My family has decades of experience as tenants and I can’t agree at all. I feel they do the complete opposite - hope that only fixing when things break be the cheaper option. Any regular checks they are a complete farce and on many occasions have actually broken things, especially regarding boilers (I wish I were joking) I do agree good money is being made on maintenance. The service is sold, it just doesn’t properly get carried out The people they send round to fix things are bluntly thick as shit and often damage more than they fix
- rikroots 4y ago
  In my (limited) experience, smaller housing associations seem to show more care and attention than larger ones. It shouldn't be that way. As to the quality of subcontractors - I have good experiences and bad experiences. I always give feedback, even when not invited to do so.