The Disposable Economy

Anyone know a good cobbler?  Seamstress?  TV Repairman?

Of course not!  Not anymore.  Because we live in a disposable economy.

We don’t fix things anymore.   We simply throw them out and buy new ones.

It makes me stop and think about how little we value our belongings.  How little patience we have when things don’t work as they ought.  And it’s not because the things that are breaking are cheap.

The color settings on my $600 television went all ka-plooey after a fierce thunder and lightening storm.  I called Best Buy.  They told me that since I hadn’t purchased the warranty I was out of luck.  They said for $200 they could send someone to the house to look at it, but there was no guaranteeing they could fix it.  I’m now very used to watching a television where the clouds in the sky are red, and if any action happens at night it’s a total mystery to me because I can’t see a damn thing.

In today’s disposable economy we don’t darn our socks, mend our clothes – or our relationships – we just replace them.   Get new ones.

Call me old fashioned but I refuse to just throw things out.  Get rid of them because they’re not perfect.

I’m totally content to watch my much-too-red television – even if the colors aren’t true to life.  And I have plenty of friends – some who have known me for decades — who will watch it with me.  They’re not disposable at all.