Greg Mayman wrote in a message to Peter May:

 -=> Peter May said to All
 -=> about "CAMCORDER REPAIRS" on 02-02-04  22:58.....

 PM> Maybe, why are these things so darned difficult to fix?

 GM> Because they are not meant to be fixed. Like most modern things you
 GM> are supposed to throw them away and buy new ones.

 GM> EXAMPLE: my 15YO Sharp TV gave up the ghost about two months ago. I
 GM> took it to a local repairer who diagnosed a faulty vert o/p
 GM> transformer (which is what I thought it was anyway). Estimated
 GM> cost, including labour, AUD$96.

 GM> But when it died it must have taken out parts of the power
 GM> supply, and he spent quite a few hours replacing damaged
 GM> components, but without any great success. Even phone calls to the
 GM> Sharp service centre could not help.

 GM> So he offered the set back to me for $50 (his price for the
 GM> flyback transformer), or he was willing to accept the set as
 GM> payment, so he could scavenge it for spare parts.

 GM> I bought myself a new set with stereo sound for AUD$174, probably
 GM> what the repairs on the old one would have cost by the time he
 GM> tracked down the fault and fixed it.

 GM> Unfortunately it's the way of the world.

 GM> But we may yet see a reversal of this trend. I believe in Europe
 GM> the auto manufacturers have to post a fee to cover ultimate
 GM> disposal and or recycling of their cars.

 GM> When it starts to cost more to junk something than it does to
 GM> repair it, this whole business will turn around!

It's getting worse, some of these chinese 54cm TVs are down to about $198
nowadays, however theres no economical parts or service when they break.

I bought my daughter an electric scooter for about $100, it got ridden by
everyone for about 2 months and then the toothed belt tore and slipped to
one side jamming the shaft of the motor, burning out the armature.

You have to start doing your sums at this point, the unit has two 12 volt
lead acid batteries, an electronic control unit, horn, wheels, brakes,
frame, rare earth permanent magnet motor and belt. All for under $100?

My local battery supplier wants $120 for a small lead acid battery for my
aging National Camcorder.

Someone obviously is making the middleman money here, so what's his profit,
margin? Even more interesting, just how much are the chinese exporting
these things for?

Do they use slave labor or robotics to save costs? What do the workers and
downstream industries get paid?

I recently bought an 650 watt electric planer with a 3 year replacement
warranty for under $60! How can they do this? 

How can this be economically sustainable in the long term environmental sense? 
 
You cant keep digging ore out of the ground and turning it into
"things" for almost free, so where are the costs of the raw
materials?

What is this doing to other, well thought out industries in other
countries, where natural resources still have some value attached to them? 


Regards,
Peter 
--- timEd 1.10.y2k+