Right to Repair

Quoting journeytoknowledge

I just wanted to hear people's opinion on the ongoing trend of tech becoming more and more difficult to repair and also the whole topic of planned obsolescence. I feel like now more than ever, we need to be very informed consumers, however, in some instances it feels like choosing between bad and worse. I'm against many things, but I also enjoy the convenience of having things like a smartphone. Anyone have a proposition to shopping more responsibly and also efficiently because it shouldn't be something that takes up a whole lot of time and research.

The instances where I've heard "right to repair," are in relation to an expensive piece of equipment e.g. a car or tractor. The manufacturer won't allow the purchaser to make changes in the software running the machine in order to fix glitches or change the way it works.

I've heard "planned obsolescence" in relation to equipment that is expected to be out-of-date within a relatively brief period after purchase either because it is not made to last or supporting technology and infrastructure will change. We had a refrigerator for 35 years before we had to replace it. Now we've had two in the past 15 years. The guy at the appliance store says that's just the way things are now. We recently replaced an old clothes dryer. We were going to repair it, but it cost less to replace it.

When I was a kid, if our TV broke, a guy would come and test the glass vacuum tubes inside and replace any that weren't working correctly. That usually did the trick. Now, if there are problems and the device is out of warrantee, you just buy a new one.

What do I think of it? Seems wasteful, but then TV sets and other electronic equipment are incredibly cheap these days. Cheap to build, cheap to buy, impossible to fix.

Yes, right to repair usually is an expensive piece of equipment, but recently it also includes lower cost items. For example, apple will start "verifying" third party repair shops and technicians will be "apple certified" but there are many rules and limitations to what they can fix. If they don't want the tech to fix something then the phone is useless and last I checked those weren't necessarily cheap phones.

I'm sure this will apply to ipads, macbooks, imacs, etc. and those aren't cheap either. I bring this topic up because I feel it's becoming increasingly common and a deciding factor when I purchase things. When I saw the new M1 macs I have to admit I was impressed, but having built my first PC recently, I appreciate the ability to change out parts individually as opposed to having to toss something out when it goes bad.

My wife now needs a new computer and it got me thinking about this, not only as it pertains to computers but about everything.

Then perhaps they need to invest more in the recycling of old devices. This always reminds me of the animated film ‘Robots’. Innovation needs to be held responsible for the resulting obsolescence.

I had to look up the trailer, never seen it but seems like a good movie to watch with the kids.. btw yes I agree, but what do you think would accelerate that because obviously the innovators aren't doing it on their own. Is this a case where government intervention is needed? I feel like the consumers could "vote with their dollars" but only to a certain extent. I'm not going to run off and throw my smartphone in the river and never buy one again. For me it would probably be something small like comparing companies that give the most software updates or that have the best repair scores on ifixit.

It is quite odd in the grand scheme because most civilizations prided themselves on making things that lasted the test of time, granted they didn't get this far.

Quoting T Clark

Seems wasteful, but then TV sets and other electronic equipment are incredibly cheap these days. Cheap to build, cheap to buy, impossible to fix.

And impossible to deal with all the resulting trash.

Right to Repair?

Wrong.

Duty to recycle!

If it breaks buy a new one, and keep people in jobs. The old one can be thrown into an industrial mincing machine, along with all the other waste, then heated, and distilled, and rendered down into constituent elements, that can then be used again. Of course, this takes a lot of energy - and it's there, beneath our feet, boiling hot magma 4000 miles deep, 26,000 miles around. All the clean energy we could ever need, and then some!