Automobiles

Something was mentioned to me the other day which I found kind of amusing.

A friend of mine had a car break down on them, a simple electronic part that took 15 minutes to replace. Cost him a tow bill to the shop ($85) and three lost hours of time (from work) to have the work done, plus the pasts and labor. Now keep in mind what he said was basically blurted out in frustration and anxiety, but taken out of context it is still pretty funny.

He said "There are houses that last 300 years in America, you would think they would be able to make a car last trouble free for 100,000 miles !" I really didn't say anything to him at the time, because I did not want to add to his frustration and make it worse. I did however convince him to get subscribed to AAA.

You see , here's the thing.

They can make a car that basically lasts forever. That is not the issue. the problem is if they made a car last that long and it was never obsolete, we couldn't afford to buy it. A car designed to last 300,000 miles would cost 75,000 dollars or more.

Same with electronics and tires and a lot of other consumer goods. I mean after all they can make a truck tire for 18 wheelers that lasts 250,000 miles. It costs 400 dollars to buy it, but they can make it.

Consumer goods are planned to be obsolete. The concept is actually called "Planned Obsolescence". We throw away TV's, computers, clothes, paper goods, VCR's, DVD players and just about anything else after a short period of time, because we desire to have the latest and greatest and because this is the way American business (Capitalist consumer business).

There is no need to repair a computer if it costs 300 dollars to fix and Wally world will sell you a new crappy one for 750 dollars. Doesn’t make any sense to spend a lot of money to fix old when new is just a few dollars away does it ?

Somebody has to keep the landfill employees in work don’t they?