@ZimZaxZeo:
We are truly “the throwaway society” here in the good ol’ Newnited Stakes. Somewhere once I read a list of the “life expectancy” of various vehicles, appliances, etc. in the U.S. vs. typical third-world countries such as Mexico, India, etc. Like a Chevy that we Hamericans would junk in a decade or so would definitely be gliding along for 50 years in Encinada or Juarez. A refrigerator better go 100 years, a TV like 20 or 30. And a bicycle: can you dig like 300 years!!
There is a simple reason: they have to make do! We have so much ample supply and sophisticated distribution of new stuff, and such torrents of ready cash and credit here it is mindboggling compared to any prior phase in human history. No wonder our junk heaps could sustain whole civilizations for millennia – and likely will, so long as their citizens are robustly tolerant of radioactives, dioxin and oddly mutated organisms.
Zs and Jan__,
Yeah, my folks had a refridgerator that was two decades old they couldn’t find the gasket for so they got a new fridge. i wonder if they could have found the gasket they needed in Mexico. :) The fridge my mama has now is 25 years old.
Planned obsolescence isn’t working as well as it did.
F___, My mama is 79 years old!!! She remembers WWII and the US Depression.