Break This: Throwing Away and Buying New

As the saying goes, "If it ain't broken don't fix it." However, I would like to expound on this saying a little more. For the last decade or so American consumers have been pleased with the current product life cycle. That is you purchase a product, you use it, if it breaks you throw it away, then purchase a new one. This is one of the reason why the United States is one if not the largest consumer in the world. If we don't like a product or if it breaks in the slightest bit we just buy the latest that is out there and throw the old one away, again and again, and again.

Now that we are in a down turned economy, however, it is time to change the way the average consumer thinks. There is less money now to spend and yet we still want a lot of things. The tide needs to turn back to the days of hacking, repairing, and repurposing. The day has come where we need to take the initiative in trying to repair, jimmy-rig, or resurrect the things we want. So instead of throwing away that LCD TV that has gone black, replace those bad capacitors and watch it come back. Want a server? Repurpose that old work laptop and use it to host your pictures and movies.

Want some good resources? Check out instructables.com, Make magazine,and a ton of other sites dedicated to those people who want to make things work. Save a buck, save a purchase, and save yourself some heartache of losing your stuff.