[matis140]

Another change, but one much harder to manage is that many of the products people buy today have no value left after 2-4 years and some both have no value after 2-4 years and do things degrading their performance forcing you to again purchase an expensive item that does nothing to build wealth. Vehicles, electronics, home appliances all sit at something like a max of 8-11 years of use and loose 30-50% of their value as soon as purchased. Now that we are making smart everything's I can see the life of home appliances dropping. Some of this is intentional. Some necessity. I have a refrigerator from the 70's that works great, but I know I could reduce my power bill by getting a more modern one, however I am worried that upgrading will land me with something more likely to fail. certainly not something that will run 50 years with no issues.

[rland]

Things were repairable in the past because they were both mechanically simple and far more expensive up front. If you want, you can live as people did in the 50s and spend $2,000 for an automatic dishwasher, $3,000 for a washer/dryer combo, and $4,000 for a refrigerator. If you spend that much today, you will get something that will last you decades.

But you probably won't. Instead, you'll go for something that is a third of the price, and it'll last you about 10 years.

In particular: cars are far more reliable and efficient than they were even 10 or 20 years ago.

[kaybe]

Old home appliances are basically free. If you don't care too much for recency and efficiency, you can just pick one up from a neighbor here. For example, the city website where you can register to get large trash items taken away links to a platform where people post what they want to give away. It's full of old furniture and appliances, and only costs you some time and transport method.

I'm surprised sometimes, really, at what a wealth of stuff is around us, and how quickly these things switch between being coveted sinks of money and 'just take it off my hands, free'.

[chiph]

There's a bunch of videos on YouTube of how to repair washing machines, clothes dryers and dishwashers (repairing refrigerators usually needs special tools & training).

A good example is the cast aluminum bracket supporting the drum in modern front-loading washers. It commonly corrodes and breaks, and is often the reason why the machines get replaced. It's about a $120 part that will give your $1500 washer another 3 years of life -- as long as you're willing to put some free labor in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFXp2X99mQs

[kaybe]

Long live youtube academy!

[mikeash]

The average age of American cars on the road today is over 11 years. That means they’re generally lasting twice that long.

A few decades ago, it was a remarkable achievement to get a car to 100,000 miles. Now, if a car falls apart that quickly, you probably swear off the entire brand for making unacceptably shoddy products.

I’m sure there are examples of the phenomenon, but cars aren’t it.

[zozbot123]

> I have a refrigerator from the 70's that works great

That refrigerator had a real cost (adjusted for inflation) that's just as high as "heavy-duty", "pro" units that you can buy today and that will last you just as long (adjusting for survival bias)

[pixl97]

That old refrigerator likely eats a ton of power and will kill the atmosphere if it breaks open too.

[kart23]

Buying used is the best thing ever. TBH craigslist is full of deals, although it sometimes takes a while. I found some parts to fix my gaming PC being sold for fractions of what they were going for on ebay, etc. Let someone else take the depreciation hit.