I was reading a story about a computer repair firm and the owner/CEO/whatnot said that if a broken laptop can’t be repaired in an hour, it becomes cheaper to just buy a new one. Now, this is in Finland so the same might not apply everywhere equally, but it got me thinking about the waste created by the extra costs forced on employers through various labor laws and regulations. There is no way that the one hour output of a Finnish worker comes even close to covering a new laptop.
So, by this logic, shouldn’t environmentalists be demanding the removal of government interference in the workplace? I know I’ve thrown a lot of fixable stuff out because it’s cheaper to buy new stuff. And I keep hearing environmentalists say that products should be repaired if possible.
How harmful is it to the environment to produce a new laptop? I think the bigger problem would be regulations chasing away businesses and jobs, but yes, you do make a good point.
I was going by the caricature-environmentalist idea that all industrial activity is harmful.
But obviously the effect isn’t limited to laptops. I would imagine that it has an effect on all repair vs. new situations. If you start adding up everything, we could be talking about considerable sums. And the more I think about it, the more it seems like the distortion of the market should worry economists as well.
From the point of view of laptop manufacturers, you’re better off making hard-to-repair laptops than easy-to-repair laptops. This is “planned obsolescence”. As long as the laptop survives the warranty period, then the manufacturer keeps customers.
There’s no incentive for manufacturing easy-to-repair laptops. Laptop manufactuers have a State-granted oligopoly. You can’t say “I’ll start my own laptop manufacturing business, focusing on durability and ease of repair.” The State restricts competition. Either you won’t raise capital, or patents prevent you from operating.
Due to “planned obsolescence” and cartelization, it’s more profitable to make something that breaks in a few years and needs to be discarded and replaced. There’s no true free market, so this defect cannot be corrected by “market forces”.