[tremon]

The former is always cheaper in developed economies

Is it really cheaper to buy a new house than to replace a fuse? Really cheaper to buy a new car than to replace a tyre? Really cheaper to buy a new OS than to install some updates?

[otagekki]

I am not sure about the house, but on used cars replacing a broken engine/transmission/hybrid battery is more expensive than the car itself (or even better: a car value if sold whole is sometimes less than the sum of its parts).

For the rest, I was mostly talking about electronic hardware: replacing broken screens, wanting more Processor/RAM but buying a new motherboard is needed, etc.