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Is this at least partially the product of a culture of disposable goods? People would rather buy a new TV every few years than fix them. As wasteful as it see

by tcbawo 2y ago

Is this at least partially the product of a culture of disposable goods? People would rather buy a new TV every few years than fix them. As wasteful as it seems, people seem to choose this option more and more with their purchase habits. Cars get more modular and less repairable every year. One day, if/when cheap replacements are no longer available, we might adapt. Or we might be sorry.

bluGill 2y ago
It is also that goods are in general a lot more reliable. 40 years ago if you got a car to 100,000 miles you called all your friends to brag - the car had rust holes all over, burned oil, and had many other problems. Today cars go 300k miles if you want. Today you don't have to file points, or most of the other things people had to do. 50 years ago a color TV would cost you $1000 - that is not inflation adjusted. It would be scrap in a couple years, but you could have a TV repair person replace the tubes and do some other small adjustments to bring it back to new for much less. Now a TV has transistors (chips) and so is not made to be repaired - but it will last a lot longer and costs a lot less (though some TVs use cheap capacitors that will fail fast and make it scrap unless you know how to replace them - the tubes were made to be replace while capacitors are not).
jaredmclaughlin 2y ago
That just means the dies and molds wear out faster and need replaced. Your TV isn't machined but making it consumes machining services.
toomuchtodo 2y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39044586 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39044586 (“What Happened to the US Machine Tool Industry?”) https://parallelventures.com/the-decline-of-u-s-precision-machine-shops/ https://parallelventures.com/the-decline-of-u-s-precision-ma... https://www.amazon.com/When-machine-stopped-cautionary-industrial/dp/0875842089 https://www.amazon.com/When-machine-stopped-cautionary-indus...

by tcbawo 2y ago

bluGill 2y ago

It is also that goods are in general a lot more reliable. 40 years ago if you got a car to 100,000 miles you called all your friends to brag - the car had rust holes all over, burned oil, and had many other problems. Today cars go 300k miles if you want. Today you don't have to file points, or most of the other things people had to do. 50 years ago a color TV would cost you $1000 - that is not inflation adjusted. It would be scrap in a couple years, but you could have a TV repair person replace the tubes and do some other small adjustments to bring it back to new for much less. Now a TV has transistors (chips) and so is not made to be repaired - but it will last a lot longer and costs a lot less (though some TVs use cheap capacitors that will fail fast and make it scrap unless you know how to replace them - the tubes were made to be replace while capacitors are not).

jaredmclaughlin 2y ago

That just means the dies and molds wear out faster and need replaced. Your TV isn't machined but making it consumes machining services.

toomuchtodo 2y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39044586 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39044586 (“What Happened to the US Machine Tool Industry?”) https://parallelventures.com/the-decline-of-u-s-precision-machine-shops/ https://parallelventures.com/the-decline-of-u-s-precision-ma... https://www.amazon.com/When-machine-stopped-cautionary-industrial/dp/0875842089 https://www.amazon.com/When-machine-stopped-cautionary-indus...