Flexmoney Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 UGH. It's everywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 And it gets worse and worse every year. We have become a society of disposable everything and it's become so cheap, we don't even care. One of the ultimate homages to disposablity are flashlights that do not have replaceable batteries. I first started to see them showing up in hospitals years ago - sold on the premise that not having all those nasty little groves in them made them more sanitary. Sanitary my ___, I could buy one good flashlight that could be sterilized and a lifetime supply of bulbs and batteries for the cost of one box of those disposable suckers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokshwn Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Planned obsolescence, along with the neverending barrage of marketing telling us we need the latest greatest.....I hate it too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h2osport Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Doubly troubling when your job is based on repairing things. I work on tools for a living, and the industry is constantly working its way toward disposable tools. I am always amazed to find tools that have zero parts available for them. Randy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GentlemanJim Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Yup It pretty much sucks... More steel is consumed making bottle caps than is used to make cars. In the past if the starter in your car went out...you would tear it down put in new brushes bushings and bendix If the motor was burned...a local shop could rewind it for you In the end with a little effort...it was good as new and would last for decades. Today a starter from Auto Zone may last a couple years at best ...burn it up and chuck it In todays World its not quality that counts...its quantity...use it once, then throw it away. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 "And it gets worse and worse every year. We have become a society of disposable everything and it's become so cheap, we don't even care." And thusly we have become a nation of LANDFILLS--and we SHOULD care, dammit. How lazy and stupid can we get...??? Jim is right about the rebuilding of auto parts (and all kinds of other stuff). We used to do it all the time. Never wasted anything until it was certifiably and totally worn out. (And then we'd stockpile the usable remains to rebuild even more stuff.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlin Orr Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 The tip of the iceberg. People/employees/human beings... are looked at in the same manner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wide45 Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Tell me about it. My job is rebuilding parts. Used to be nearly recession proof. Times got hard, people had to fix up their old stuff instead of buying new. Times are harder when nothing can be fixed. It's getting real hard to get replacement parts for the things that can be rebuilt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe4d Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Hey, I am a certified VCR repair man ! Big demand for that. If we end up with all disposable products what jobs will be left ? Ive been telling kids to get into a service field as US manufacturing jobs were history, I figure the good career fields will be fixing stuff. But now it looks like that is leaving also. Hey maybe undertaker or crematorium operator would be a good job field. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Tell them to get a job selling beer. My dad dit it for 35 years. The worse things get the more beer people drink. I know it sounds like a sad joke. But some of his best years were in the big recessions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLM Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Oddly enough... I just finished repairing the motor in my tumbler. It's less than 3 years old and the rubber bushings on the bearings that go into the motor end plates are wore out. Well, one is. The one on the end of the shaft where the weight is, naturally. I'm sure finding new ones would be next to if not impossible so I had to improvise with electrical tape and then finish sizing with Teflon pipe tape. It's working for now again but for how long, who knows. I see why these things are use and chuck. God forbid the end plate was made out of decent metal like steel and then machined to the proper size for the bearing. No, lets just wedge any ole parts we have lying around in here and fill that big gap with some nice soft rubber so it wears out fast. Yea, yea... That's a good idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 And it gets worse and worse every year. We have become a society of disposable everything and it's become so cheap, we don't even care.One of the ultimate homages to disposablity are flashlights that do not have replaceable batteries. I first started to see them showing up in hospitals years ago - sold on the premise that not having all those nasty little groves in them made them more sanitary. Sanitary my ___, I could buy one good flashlight that could be sterilized and a lifetime supply of bulbs and batteries for the cost of one box of those disposable suckers. The current concept on disposable equipment is in caring for patients with communicable diseases who are in isolation --- the concept is basically to dedicate equipment to that patient, to break it out of its packaging in the room, leave it there, and to dispose of it as a biohazard at the end of the patient's stay..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scirocco38s Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 (edited) And it gets worse and worse every year. We have become a society of disposable everything and it's become so cheap, we don't even care.One of the ultimate homages to disposablity are flashlights that do not have replaceable batteries. I first started to see them showing up in hospitals years ago - sold on the premise that not having all those nasty little groves in them made them more sanitary. Sanitary my ___, I could buy one good flashlight that could be sterilized and a lifetime supply of bulbs and batteries for the cost of one box of those disposable suckers. The current concept on disposable equipment is in caring for patients with communicable diseases who are in isolation --- the concept is basically to dedicate equipment to that patient, to break it out of its packaging in the room, leave it there, and to dispose of it as a biohazard at the end of the patient's stay..... This is the problem with the entire medical industry. It is a US phenomenom mainly. Other countries are requiring better cleanliness of the equipment. Also the quality of US heathcare workers is not nearly as good as it was 20yrs ago. I have been working in this field since 1981 as a field service rep, so I have a basis for what I am saying. Isay this across the entire hospital staff not just 1 particular group. OR rooms used to be built with ceramic tile from the floor to the ceiling so the entire room couold be cleaned and sanitized, now they use a clean room process not a sterilized and sanitized process. This is how bacteria that create stuff like mrsa(spelling) were started. At 1 time you could only get the infection in a hospital now it is becoming more and more prevalent in the outside world. US companies dont want to have to supply parts to repair things as it requires them to have to create a parts logistics and employ people to man and manage it. It requires them to also have people that can repair the items and that is more overhead. That cuts into the ceo's bonus and stock options. Edited June 13, 2009 by scirocco38s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el pres Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 That cuts into the ceo's bonus and stock options. And that is the most honest statement so far, that pretty much sums up everything these days. Why is the medical tool now plastic and disposable instead of stainless and reusable, the idiot at the hospitle says,"I dont know, it makes life easier", no you idiot, it alows the tool company to sell a new one with every procedure and "bill our insurance". Even cars are now getting this way, imagine buying a whole A/C dash control unit for a $1000 because the night illumination bulb is out and is not removable... Flex, nice Avatar !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry cazes Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 "And it gets worse and worse every year. We have become a society of disposable everything and it's become so cheap, we don't even care." More to the point, we used to be the best manufacturers and designers of products in the world. In the last 20-30 years or so we have outsourced everything and consequently we have become a society of consumers only and we demand disposable products that are as cheap as possible. Sadly, this is our own undoing. The downfall of our auto industry is just the conclusion of our transformation from a producing nation into a consuming nation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdstihl Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 Unfortunately, a lot of good posts in this thread. "And thusly we have become a nation of LANDFILLS--and we SHOULD care, dammit." - Siggy. Yep. I don't consider myself a "greenie", but it seems ridiculous that we can't come up with a better solution than to bury our trash, thereby making the land unsuitable for either housing or food production. "The tip of the iceberg. People/employees/human beings... are looked at in the same manner. " -Merlin. Except I fear the iceberg is here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 Yep. I don't consider myself a "greenie", but it seems ridiculous that we can't come up with a better solution than to bury our trash, thereby making the land unsuitable for either housing or food production. Tijuana, Mexico had a huge problem with the growing size of their trash dumps. There were even "permanent" populations of scavengers who made a living scrounging usable items. A company has taken over the trash disposal, hired all the scavengers, and set up a massive single stream recycling center. They will produce tons of recyclable metals, plastics, paper, every year and are building a biomass plant that will produce electricity from the organic wastes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GIO Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 I think the diminishing focus on the trades has added to this. No more Metal shop, wood shop, etc. Even if things could be fixed nobody knows how to do it. Look at the Autobody business. Strip off the broken stuff and bolt on the new stuff. No more pounding panels or fixing bumpers. Guns seem to be hanging in there.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Boudrie Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 The current concept on disposable equipment is in caring for patients with communicable diseases who are in isolation If you get your brain surged you want the tech to use disposable tools - even an autoclave does not destroy the CJD prions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anubis Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 And thusly we have become a nation of LANDFILLS--and we SHOULD care, dammit. How lazy and stupid can we get...??? With all the crying about carbon emissions from coal plants and these demands for 'clean carbon' technology that basically just filters everything out of the air before exhausting it into the atmosphere I don't understand why we can't just apply the same filtering technology to a garbage burning plant and kill two birds with one stone. There's certainly plenty of trash to burn..... So what if burning trash isn't as efficient as burning coal, as long as there's a gain I think it'd be worthwile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now