Thirteen For A Dozen

Do we throw this away or keep it? I think I can fix it let me give it a look, that’s all right I’ll just buy another because it’ll cost more for you to fix it than for me to get a new one.

Does this sound familiar? It seems we are now living in a throwaway society, a society where nothing is actually made to last, things are now made to be thrown away after a short time, and replaced with a new version.

I remember a time when the soles and heels on my boots were actually replaced many times over, and now days I can’t even tell you where a good boot repair shop actually is, because I simply replace my boots.

I once a pair of boots that were older than my kids, I had spent so much money on new soles and heels over the years that I could have paid for a new pair a couple of times, but the point I am making is that the boots were not falling apart.

Furniture is easier to replace than to fix, simply due to the quality of the materials used today, furniture that was made thirty years ago is still holding strong and if you want to pay to have it reupholstered it will still be holding strong thirty years from now.

And speaking of strong you really have to be strong if you want to rearrange the furniture made it that era, the furniture today you are lucky if it doesn’t break when you sit down on it.

It seems that a lot of corners are cut to make items cheaper, although the prices don’t seem to come down the quality sure seems to.

Even with groceries, how many of you remember “A bakers dozen” say you go into the bakery and order a dozen donuts, your friendly neighborhood baker would throw thirteen in the box and charge you for twelve.

Go to the grocery store today and pick up a twenty-four pack of Coke and get home to realize there are only twenty in the new packages, but yet you got charged for twenty-four, the quantity is going down on a lot of items, but the price either remains the same or rises.

Computers and electronics make you think they have a part installed inside them that causes the product to self destruct within the week after the warranty runs out, if you buy an extended warranty then you are given the one with the extra long self destruct sequence.

Vehicle prices really get under my skin, the commercials praise the greatness of this car and brag about all the bells and whistles, then in the same breath say “Starting at like a gazillion dollars” like this is a good deal, seriously some of these prices are more than I have paid for a house in the past.

The sad thing is we keep running out and buying these vehicles, we finance them for about six years and then trade them in within four, the prices go up and we buy another.

What if we all made our vehicles last ten years like they should?

I know we wouldn’t be driving the latest and greatest vehicle every four years, but when it does come time to replace our ten year old vehicle the prices could likely be a bit more affordable.

A lot of things break and we have no control over that, but what about the things we can actually repair, is it really easier to throw it away and buy a new one?