(not that we know where to repair it or how much it’d cost, we just throw it)

Edit : I can understand why taking two hours to repair something worth 20€ isn’t worth it though, e.g. a computer mouse, but even in such case we could standardize a minimum and have enterprises specialized in ensuring that spare parts are always available(, each costing a few euros).
Then instead of the longer task of repairing a circuit board, the consumer could easily swap it by h·er·im·self, or leave it to a pro who’d take less than 5mns.
(And the older circuit board would be sent for free and either repaired or stripped for parts)
(Transportation costs will be greatly reduced in the very near future with automation, but warehouses should exist less than 12h away)

  • sharuum@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    Why would that be the case in the future? It was in the past, when people used to maintain whatever they made/bought and use it until it was completely unusable, because they were too poor to buy a new one

    Industry and automation made production way more cost efficient, but didn’t do the same for repairing, probably because it’s not as predictable and automatable as making stuff from scratch

    You can repair a lot of stuff, but you usually have to pay more than the price of buying a new item

    • sous-merde@lemmy.mlOP
      0·
      3 months ago

      Industry and automation made production way more cost efficient

      It should be cheaper to build a new part(, and change that part,) than a new whole(, and buy that whole).

      And i.d.k. if it’s the only reason : the cost of producing is much cheaper outside the west, it’s cheaper for westerners to buy from non-westerners, and conversely.
      If i keep the example of the computer mouse, it couldn’t cost 20€ if it was produced locally, if only because it takes much more than 2 cumulated hours to build one, at a minimum wage of 10€/h.
      Conversely though, it’d mean that it’d be very expensive for a non-westerner to buy products made in the west, which is the case, but we can still manage to sell them because we have a monopoly on new technologies(, with e.g. Japan or South Korea, but then again their minimum wage is high as well so it’s the same remark), such as planes or softwares.