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Too many products are easier to throw away than fix—consumers deserve a 'right to repair' (techxplore.com)

submitted 1 year ago by L4s to c/technology

69 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Too many products are easier to throw away than fix—consumers deserve a 'right to repair'::There was a time when the family washing machine would last decades, with each breakdown fixed by the friendly local repair person. But those days are long gone.

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[–] foggenbooty 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes I am aware of that and I addressed in my second comment. They are a relatively niche industry compared to consumption. I would love to see them expand.

[–] Gerula 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is the whole point: they cannot expand. While there will always be cheap enough products that don't make economic sense to repair there will always be goods that can be repaired. The limit is set by a complex economic equilibrium and is always moving but first you have to create that possibility.

Right now there is only limited repair possibility not because it's not feasible economically or there are no providers or customers for the service but because there is an active struggle from the manufacturers to stop this activity for increased sales and profits.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What products are so cheap as to not repair? I can truly only think of light bulbs and similar.

I would nearly always prefer to pay 3x for an item that I know will last 5x the other item, especially if modular, so it can be upgraded. I would love for them to come out with PSBOX, that's essentially an easy modular gaming station, then they can compete against each other and 3rd parties on hardware parts and subscription services. It would be meant to last forever, so if it breaks you just get it repaired. 8f your uncomfortable swapping parts, bring it to the repair guy. If you don't know what parts play together correctly, bring to repair guy for upgrade.

[–] Gerula 2 points 1 year ago

Essentially all the products where the following is true:

(cost of parts + cost of repair work) is comparable to the cost of the new product. (that means ≥ or slightly lower)

All those features you would like are great but hurt the profits so you won't get them, sorry.