"Built to Last"

The guys at the shop pronounced my 5-year-old Mac "vintage." I brought it in this morning with a fuzzy, vibrating screen, hoping they could doctor it back to health. To my resigned disappointment, however, the technician started off with the usual speech, "well it will probably cost you more to fix it than..."

"I'm an environmentalist," I interrupted. He looked at me patiently from across the counter - sympatheticly, even. "I don't want to buy a new computer," I explained. "How much will it cost to fix it?"

"$200 for labor and $600 for parts." Ouch.

Next to me, another technician was counseling a fellow victim, "hard drives only last between 3-5 years," he explained matter-of-factly.

I recently replaced my hard-drive. In fact, I replaced everything wrong with my computer last summer. And now this. A five-year-old "vintage" computer, with a broken part they don't make anymore. Gaaaaaarrrrrghhhh!

We are building a disposable society. How can we expect to build a society to last when every component is vintage, outmoded, obsolete, after five years?

My frustrating morning reminded me of a German video that depicts human society from the perspective of "rock people." Check it out - it's worth a watch: http://youtube.com/watch?v=0fp5hbwdW3E

This speaks for itself.

In the meantime, I didn't buy a new computer. Mike and I are sharing computers for now, which is not exactly a state of deprivation. We'll see if it lasts...