America hasn't always been a "throwaway society." In the wake of the Great Depression, people learned to scrimp, save, reuse, and repair because they didn't have much choice.
Through the years, however, people lost their appreciation for getting the most out of what they already owned and got brain-washed into thinking that new is good and old is bad -- even if what they had still worked fine.
Now, with economic realities cycling back to where they were many decades ago, people are rediscovering old habits, like choosing to fix damaged items instead of junking them.
In "Repair Business Booming Despite Economic Downturn," Texas TV station KCBD reports on this emerging trend.
There are some shops around town that aren't phased by the tough economy. In fact some owners say business is better than usual, because many consumers are trying to save money by forgoing the new and repairing the old.
Lenny Pressley owns Affordable Computer Repair and says the economic downturn has done anything but decrease his business. "We've seen about 50% increase in the number of repairs versus new number sales," said Pressley.About five months ago Pressley started to notice his business increase. "I don't feel like Lubbock's been impacted by the economic crunch very much up to this point, but I guess people are starting to repair what they have vs. buy new equipment," said Pressley.
Pressley is not alone. "I talked to some other owners of Lubbock computer businesses and they have all seen the same trend with the number of repairs increasing," said Pressley.
Another booming industry is car repair. "We've got more than we can get done that's for sure," said Rick Pinkerton, the owner of Pinkerton Garage and Body Shop.
Pinkerton says business is great. "We've been getting a lot more engines, transmissions, stuff like that that a lot of time people won't fix they would go trade it in when they had stuff like that come up that was that big of a major job so we've been seeing a lot of that. It just seems like it's doing pretty good right now," said Pinkerton.
An upward trend Pinkerton would like to see stay. "It just seems like more people are fixing their cars now to me," said Pinkerton.
The trow away society is not just the product of brain
washing. In times when making things was labor intensive
the value and appreciation of objects was far greater than
when than when its assembly line made.Labor and a persons time
had real value.Many things shape peoples minds and the way we make
a living is formost in our thinkink
Posted by: roger | January 16, 2009 at 11:03 PM