i love this post, because im a repair dude as much i can do...
WHY??? because as you said iits easy and sometimes Cheaper to buy something new, but does it have same quality... mostly NO!!!
Seee in 80/90 people started to give away the REAL WOOD stuff to get some pressed WOODENLIKE thingy because it got a plastic outrside and its easier to clean up, there we did the first downgrade of our stuff same thing now is happens to doos kitchens and loads of other stuff.. it didnt get better it gots cheaper yeah, but why because it doesnt have the quality of earlier stuff....
So when im able to repair im going to do it!!
This is more true than most people realize. It is also a perfect demonstration that society is far more valuable than it's economy.
I watched a video yesterday that documented a journey down the Nile in the mid-80s. The detail of the societies encountered, the Nuba, Dinka, and other tribes, revealed that the concept of economy was highly variable in societies that generally operated similarly, despite enormous differences in what they ate, how they worshiped, and transferred value.
In all societies there reported, family was the core of value and economic mechanisms were employed to focus wealth in families - until they got to Cairo. The myriad particulars of the unique societies that made them look very different from what we're familiar with were no longer obvious, and people in Cairo dressed like everyone else in the West, and the economy no longer was focused on family, decreasing the power wielded by heads of household and increasing the power wielded by the state.
In the West, we're tricked by economic incentives to deliver our wealth and power to the state. Every time I fix something instead of replacing it, I increase the power of family, and freedom, while decreasing the tyranny we are subject to.
Hey this selfcalled SOCIAL MARKETECONOMY dont want you to repair things, they want to sell you NEW stuff which get broken quicker than the stuff you had before so you buy new again and again and again...
They dont want a shoerepairman , they dont want all this WORKING men... they want us as marionettes which are taking what they tells us
And at least Marketeconomy cant be social and they got it :D