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0 pointslliamander8y ago0 comments

You've made some thoughtful points, but I'm not sure I agree with your conclusion.

In short, repairability is too nebulous of a target for effective regulation. I think the appropriate angle for government intervention is to protect a "right to repair".

> A large part of the discrepancy is not automation, but cheap labour in the East where many of our products are made. Regulation can help redress than inequality...Regulation can address that by mandating reparability.

There are a number of ways to tackle this issue:

* reduce the regulatory and tax burden faced by small repair shops. Increased competition and lower overhead costs will drive down prices.

* reduce the regulations that impact the product design. Engineering is the result of navigating difficult trade-offs; the more aspects of a design we try to "fix", especially through political processes, the more complex the end result will be.

* broaden access to repair knowledge and tools. You don't even need regulatory changes for this one; It's an excellent opportunity for entrepreneurs. Part of the reason older cars are so easy to repair is that the tools and knowledge have become widespread thanks to third-party businesses that have found a way to supply those things cheaply and profitably. YouTube is a DIYer's dream.

> It's also worth thinking about why we consider replacement being cheaper than repair to be a problem at all - if you trust the market, what's so horrible about that? Real time saver right?

Sometimes it's not a problem. Is it better to use a paper towel is biodegradable and produced through sustainable tree-farming, or use a reusable cloth towel that increases demand for environmentally unfriendly washing machines and laundry detergent (and spend money on sewing machines and thread to repair holes)?

> the price of new goods does not reflect their full environmental and social cost

Nor would they with heavy regulation, because the "full environmental and social cost" is incalculable. Furthermore, there is no attempt to measure the costs imposed by the regulations and the net benefits provided (if any).

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adamsea8y ago

> Is it better to use a paper towel is biodegradable and produced through sustainable tree-farming, or use a reusable cloth towel that increases demand for environmentally unfriendly washing machines and laundry detergent (and spend money on sewing machines and thread to repair holes)?

If someone has gone to the effort to buy responsibly sourced paper towels, I think they would also own responsibly sourcfed and environmentally friendly detergent. And of course the cloth would usually be washed with other items, and so not that much more water would be used. And, is thread really a cost here for home repairs?

I think the more realistic version of your scenario is:

"Is it better to use a non-biodegradable paper towel which was not sustainably produced, or to use a resusable cloth which needs to be thrown in with the other laundry occasionally, and which after many months of use may be relegated to a toolkit grease-towel, or thrown out and replaced?"

Lastly -- the OP may have been over-specific in talking about "full environmental and social cost", but there is plenty of room to move from where we are now to "enough social costs so that poor people don't leave near factories which give them asthma and lower their life expectancy, and to mitigate the effects of human-caused global warming."

lliamanderOP8y ago

> If someone has gone to the effort to buy responsibly sourced paper towels

All paper is sustainably harvested from tree-farms where the trees are grown specifically for making paper, rather than e.g. old-growth forests. It's also all (to my knowledge) biodegradable.

I'm not saying that paper towels are always the better choice. You can also look at other factors such as manufacturing costs, etc. My point was that disposability can be a positive trait.

With regard to externalities, my point is that regulations have them too. Yes, you can impose (costly) requirements on industry, but do we ask what the cost is in terms of economic growth (which is lifting many third-world people out of extreme poverty) and technological innovation (which creates greater efficiency)?

I don't wish to sound partisan. I think that dealing with externalities is tricky, and it's worth having a discussion about. However, I think regulations to deal with them are often zero-sum solutions. It's worth asking whether:

a) there is a positive-sum (generally market-based) solution

b) the conditions that created the externality are transient and will resolve in time

anigbrowl8y ago

reduce the regulatory and tax burden faced by small repair shops. Increased competition and lower overhead costs will drive down prices.

I think manufacturer hostility to third party repairers is a much bigger burden than state-imposed overhead. It's not like all manufacturers are super-open and eager to share the schematics of their products with hackers, is it?

lliamanderOP8y ago

Whether manufacturer hostility is in fact bigger than state-imposed burdens, I agree it is a significant factor. I thought about elaborating this point with my comment about "right to repair" but left it out for the sake of brevity.

I think an aspect of this "right to repair" would be the ability to seek legal action against manufacturers who deliberately interfere with this right.

However, the relationship between repair shops and manufacturers need not be hostile. I don't know the stats for this, but would it not be reasonable to think that many people purchase cars based on the recommendation of a trusted mechanic? I certainly do. Mechanics are generally going to recommend vehicles that are either easy to work on or aren't in the shop often (or both).

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adamsea8y ago

I think the more realistic version of your scenario is:

lliamanderOP8y ago

> If someone has gone to the effort to buy responsibly sourced paper towels

All paper is sustainably harvested from tree-farms where the trees are grown specifically for making paper, rather than e.g. old-growth forests. It's also all (to my knowledge) biodegradable.

I'm not saying that paper towels are always the better choice. You can also look at other factors such as manufacturing costs, etc. My point was that disposability can be a positive trait.

a) there is a positive-sum (generally market-based) solution

b) the conditions that created the externality are transient and will resolve in time

anigbrowl8y ago

reduce the regulatory and tax burden faced by small repair shops. Increased competition and lower overhead costs will drive down prices.

lliamanderOP8y ago

I think an aspect of this "right to repair" would be the ability to seek legal action against manufacturers who deliberately interfere with this right.

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