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Reuse and repair is also encouraged by having relatively more expensive, high quality but lower-production-quantity goods. When it costs less to buy something new, more gets discarded.


It's hard to ignore the labor costs to repair things like hand tools. For someone doing it for themselves it's not an issue, but when it is your day job it can be a lot harder to do the repairs without driving the price of the tool beyond the cost of a new one. Not if you want to keep current on the rent and have money for groceries.

As the price of goods drop you will observe the subsequent decline of repair shops for said good. TV repair shops used to be in every medium size and larger city. They are now extinct. Vacuum cleaner repair only exists for specialty brands. Computer repair is sometimes a side business but it's also dying out. Cell phone repair is still a thing, but mostly because screens break a lot and batteries are wear items so there is at least a good volume of customers. Appliance repair is still a thing, but the spare parts situation has gotten so bad that even they tend to be closing shop.

Cheap goods kill repair industries.




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