[HuggaBuggaMommy]

Originally Posted by reneandbaby

The throw awaythings instead of fix things is not because of millennials. It’s because our capitalist-driven economy has made the decision to build things to where the expectation is they fail after a short period of time. Phones are literally built to be forced into obsolescence after just a few years. Once the companies stop supporting your phone with the ability to update or work with new software, your technology device is now useless. I did extensive research when my refrigerator and stove died at the same time as to *why* they died after only 8 years of use. And sure enough, that’s on purpose! The average life expectancy of a new appliance in this day and age is 8 years. It can be even shorter for “smart” appliances. And since they have more complex parts it is more expensive to repair. People then opt to replace instead of repair and so then it further drives up the cost of repairs because now the volume has decreased. Parts are no longer kept in stock and repairmen capable of repairing these things are fewer and fewer.

We have opted to get both our stove and our fridge repaired. We are on our 4th fridge repair. Our stove it took two months to get it actually repaired because he had to find the problem, order the part then it was 6 weeks for the part to come in and then the schedule the repair. Meanwhile I had to figure out how to cook for my family of 10, plus host Thanksgiving and Christmas for extended family. And the repair still cost only 600 dollars less than a new stove.

Our entire culture and economy has moved past the idea that items are repaired and kept for long periods of time for every generation, not just millennials.

Yes to all of this. Our church building is 10 years old and EVERYTHING is falling apart now. I've seen my parents go through this with their appliances. I had to replace a cell phone because I could no longer receive phone calls in my own home (low service area, and the old phone made it impossible to make or get calls inside, though I could do so in the street in front of my house), and my son had an anaphylactic reaction and no one could get ahold of me. Things are made cheap, and made to be replaced. That's the lot of it.

Every generation complains about the one following it, and they say the exact same thing, pretty much. Socrates wrote: “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”