[AussieWog93]

One thing I suspect has tipped the scales in favour of less repairable products is the massive decline in social capital.

30-40 years ago, if your lawnmower broke down you'd ask Dave from two doors down to come and have a look at it.

Now, you'd either take it to a professional repairman (and get it back 2 weeks and $100+ later), try to work it out yourself via online tutorials, or just throw it in the bin.

Either way, it's far more painful for a product to bee temporarily out of service these days than it once was.

[ip26]

There’s clearly some of the baumol effect at play. The small engine repairman hasn’t gotten much more productive, which is part of why it’s so expensive to hire out repair.

[mikrotikker]

What's responsible for that decline in social capital do you think?

[svachalek]

It's been captured, packaged, and commoditized. Dave's time doesn't belong to you anymore, it probably doesn't even belong to himself.

[AussieWog93]

Personally, I have no idea, and don't think you could even pinpoint a single cause.

There's a book that goes over it called Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam, but that is two decades old now and clearly didn't capture everything.