General > General Technical Chat
USPIRG report: Repair Saves Families Big
(1/3) > >>
cdev:
This is a new report that's come out about the need for a Right to Repair.

https://uspirg.org/sites/pirg/files/reports/RepairSavesFamiliesBig/Repair-Saves-Families-Big_USP_Jan2021_FINAL1a.pdf

And another related link on formal "skill-sharing" networks .

https://www.shareable.net/skill-sharing-landscape-emerges/
VK3DRB:
The world needs new paradigm with repair rather replace.

Governments should financially punish bad corporate citizens like Apple who send software updates to slow your phone down so that you buy the latest model. Governments should create repairable compliance legislation (eg: like safety approvals), so that products designed not to be repaired cannot enter a market such as Apple's "worm in your ear" earbuds. TVs should not be allowed in the market unless there are spare parts and repair documentation available for a period at 10 years beyond the end of life of the product (It is legislated here that car parts are available for 10 years after EOL). TV sets are far too cheap, so when they break people throw them out rather than repairing them. Governments should also make spare parts free of sales tax, VAT, GST etc. Jobs will be created - the near extinct TV repairman might get his old job back.

It will never happen in countries with backwards thinking governments. like our Victorian state government (under Daniel Andrews) who are imposing a 2.5 cents per kilometer tax, effective July 1 2021, on electric vehicles because they won't be raking in taxes from fuel. And they wonder why Australia has one of the slowest uptakes in the world. As electric vehicles increase in popularity, this tax will undoubtedly escalate.

I don't know about you, but I get great satisfaction repairing rather than replacing. Over Christmas, an elderly relative had a 25 year old electric gate opener fail. I tracked the fault to a cracked solder joint on the RF receiver PCB. FIXED! I felt really good. No need to replace it.

 
cdev:
Yes.. Doesn't it feel good to fix things!  One less piece of e-junk. Lots of saved money.


Little known international agreements now often dictate what governments can do. So if something they did in order to help consumers lowered a foreign companies profit, they could get brought before an international arbitration court and if they were found in violation they quite possibly would have to change it.

So there really does need to be a RIGHT to repair.

The costs of fighting an ISDS case are astronomical. For example, Australia passed a law that required large warning labels on tobacco packaging, they were sued in an ISDS case and the battle dragged on for years. Although they finally won, the cost was in the tens of millions of dollars to get that victory. You would think, how could it possibly break the law to protect consumers?

I would too.
CatalinaWOW:
I love repair, and would love to see spare parts available.  But everything has consequences.  The capital spent on maintaining those stocks will have to come from somewhere, probably new product development.  Those forced long product lives will also reduce the demand for new stuff.  It feels good to repair your 10-20 year old PC, but those who have done it feel the pain of a slow machine with limited graphics.

Those unintended consequences lurk everywhere.  The fuel taxes in the US and I presume in much of the rest of the world started as a way of making those who used the roads needed by these newfangled gas powered machines pay for them.  And it works pretty well.  Most road funding here over the last seven or eight decades has come from these taxes.  But as the gas eaters go away, so does the source of funding for roads.  And green as they are electric cars still need roads.  It is appropriate for them to join in paying for road use.  And as they become dominant it will become necessary.
coppercone2:
IMO right to repair with cars is huge when it comes to non essential control systems stuff (anything but breaks). Honda sells like a $50 pcb for 900 dollars for controlling a few steppers in the ventilation system ..

Storage requirement for 900$ savings : 1cm2 IC. Everything else is bog standard. Its about like 10000 times smaller then then the subassembly. Everything you might not be able to get for a car would easily fit in a match box probobly. Mail me a envelope please, I will keep it for you ;)

1 match box of unique micro processors for 300 million people has a volume of 15x15x15 feet. Nice cube worth god knows how much. Just park 2 tractor trailers in the parking lot of a dennys or something. Worth more then a few trillion dollars
Navigation
Message Index
Next page
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...

Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod