Sustainability, or Not

The majority of people and pundits claim to be in favor of sustainability. But what is it, really? I’ve written on it before. One of the key aspects is repairability. Repairability implies modularity. It also implies a bit of design, and the availability of parts.

Look at the desktop PC. Until recently almost all desktop PCs were made with interchangeable parts. You could (and many geeks did) buy a cabinet, a power supply, a motherboard, CPU, memory, a disk drive, and a monitor. Assemble it and it works. Many computer Gamers still do this!

If any of those components fails, just replace that part. When the CPU gets too slow, buy a new motherboard, CPU and memory. If you need more disk, buy a bigger disk or add a second one - there’s room inside for it! You have to choose a CPU (brand and speed) and that narrows your selection of motherboard, but otherwise you could buy any brand of any component and expect it to "just work". I have a desktop PC that is about twenty years old, and it’s on its third (at least) motherboard and third or fifth power supply, and it’s still running fine.

But recently, some of the bigger names - names like HP and Dell - have been making smaller and smaller desktop PCs, and in the process trading sustainability for short-term profits.

In days of yore, by which I mean, in western society in the post-World-War-II era, America and Europe manufactured most of their own consumer goods including what were called "durables", meaning things like electrical appliances. It was not uncommon for kids growing up in that era for their parents to have the same kettle, the same fridge, the same oven, from the kids' earliest memories until they went off to college. Nor uncommon to see the parents repairing these, or calling in a qualified repair person. I remember my dad repairing the timer mechanism on a washing machine - it was all gears and cams and a motor, and you could see how it worked, and what was wrong with it. Even today we have a mixer/blender set that belonged to my in-laws, and it was old when they were killed in a car crash…​ decades ago. And it still works. A new kettle from that same brand in this decade lasted under a year. And its warranty replacement lasted no longer!

There used to be "TV repair shops" and "Appliance repair shops" where you could take almost anything electrical and get it repaired. This was considered an honorable profession: keeping things working. Today, the same name brands that used to provide quality, long-lasting durables have been pimped off to importers who in many cases buy the cheapest possible goods from Asia and slap the honored name brand on the box.