Its such a bummer because I would have went into electronic repair if I’d been born sooner. Right as I was thinking about it all the radioshacks were shutting down etc and everything became disposable and unfixable. Really sad because I enjoy fixing things. I just stick to old stuff now.
It sickens me how much has been thrown away just in the past 15 years, not to mention since the 50s…
Yeah and I feel like if we actually respected the nature and our fellow humans, made sure everything was mined as ethically as possible, everyone paid along the way got a living wage with self-determination, made to last, actual plans for disposal — all that. Then we’d actually cherish these devices like the amazing things that they are.
Sure we’d probably just be getting to the point of streaming video now, but I honestly don’t think we’d feel like we missed out.
The problem isn’t that it can’t be done, it’s that the manufacturing cost vs. labor cost in the US stops it from making economic sense. They do repair and reuse electronics in places like China (that’s where those modified GPUs with extra RAM and cheap desktop motherboards with old Xeon CPUs on them you find on EBay and Aliexpress come from, for example), but that’s because the technicians doing the work get paid a lot less than skilled people would be willing to accept here.
I remember as a kid my mum getting angry that she had to buy a new vacuum cleaner with more non-replaceable plastic parts. She was used to being able to just get a guy to fix it. It’s sad that that’s just everything now - even cars.
Its such a bummer because I would have went into electronic repair if I’d been born sooner. Right as I was thinking about it all the radioshacks were shutting down etc and everything became disposable and unfixable. Really sad because I enjoy fixing things. I just stick to old stuff now.
It sickens me how much has been thrown away just in the past 15 years, not to mention since the 50s…
Yeah and I feel like if we actually respected the nature and our fellow humans, made sure everything was mined as ethically as possible, everyone paid along the way got a living wage with self-determination, made to last, actual plans for disposal — all that. Then we’d actually cherish these devices like the amazing things that they are.
Sure we’d probably just be getting to the point of streaming video now, but I honestly don’t think we’d feel like we missed out.
The problem isn’t that it can’t be done, it’s that the manufacturing cost vs. labor cost in the US stops it from making economic sense. They do repair and reuse electronics in places like China (that’s where those modified GPUs with extra RAM and cheap desktop motherboards with old Xeon CPUs on them you find on EBay and Aliexpress come from, for example), but that’s because the technicians doing the work get paid a lot less than skilled people would be willing to accept here.
Also, much less labor law burden. No pesky ppe required while breathing toxic fumes!
I remember as a kid my mum getting angry that she had to buy a new vacuum cleaner with more non-replaceable plastic parts. She was used to being able to just get a guy to fix it. It’s sad that that’s just everything now - even cars.