[rescue] rescue Digest, Vol 135, Issue 8

[Mouse]

>>> The cost of repair for a small business is more than the cost of a
>>> new LCD monitor.
>> That's completely dysfunctional and we should work to change it.

By making new ones more expensive, or making repairs cheaper?  In
either case, how?

> It might not even be true.  Peter just said he fixed a bunch.

Yes...at what cost?  I'm four for four, I think it is, at fixing LCD
flatscreens by re-capping.  I'd be surprised if I would ever get to the
point of taking less than an hour to do one - and, at any realistic pay
rate for a decent electronics tech, that approaches the cost of a new
flatscreen.  Add in the costs of reselling the fixed monitors and I'm
far from convinced it's not true.  And that's not even considering
profit margin - and, in jurisdictions where it's an issue, liability.

Part of this is that the force multiplier of manufacturing technology
has made the making of a million flatscreens a whole lot less costly
than a million times the cost of making one.  But the force multiplier
effect works a lot less effectively on repairs.

Yes, the current state is unsustainable in various ways.  But I have
trouble seeing any way it's likely to change short of actually running
into its unsustainability.  As a culture, we have got very good at
telling ourselves there is no problem, right up until the problem
becomes completely unavoidable.  When there's no more gas in the corner
gas station's tank, it no longer works to tell yourself fuel shortages
don't exist - or are a problem for future generations who will work it
out "somehow".  As cadmium - or gold - or oil or whatever - mines get
tapped out, it becomes less and less ignorable that we're burning
irreplacable (on human timescales) geologic capital by mining.  But we
have become very, very good at ignoring such unpleasantnesses, so,
until we run up against those walls, I don't see things changing
significantly.  I just count myself lucky I'm old enough I'll probably
be dead before things get _really_ uncomfortable.

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