Comment by zigzaggy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by zigzaggy | Hacker News Reader

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Yes, you're probably right. I can only affect change on those around me that will listen. Fortunately since I'm "the computer guy" people do listen. But for most people it's just easier to buy cheap junk and replace it when it craps out.

Sometimes I blame greedy computer repair people of the 90's and early 2000's for this mess. I remember my friend opened up a repair shop (I helped weekends as a side gig). There were companies in our town charging OUTRAGEOUS prices for very easy repairs, and doing a really bad job. Then we would end up fixing the "repair" and then the original problem, which of course was always more than the original problem. It was really sad.

Now I live in a town with NO computer repair shops, and the closest thing is the Best Buy which is the KING of overcharging for repairs and doing a crappy job.

It's no wonder people just started buying cheap computers after being ripped off.

/rant

Yes, repair is another significant aspect of the dynamic. One of the things that distinguishes a quality good is the ability to repair it if it does fail, but the economics of repair have very badly misaligned incentives. It can also be very hard for someone to tell if they are being ripped off, especially for complex products like computers. It's a lot easier to tell if a cabinet is well-made than a cell phone. But if the product is cheap then it matters less that it is crap. As long as you get some use out of it before it fails you can still get your money's worth if the price is low enough.

As the Elton John song says, it's a sad, sad situation.

Back in the early days of browser highjackers, we'd regularly charge $90 to re-install Windows 98 or XP. The same people would come back a few weeks later and pay for it again after getting a bunch more bugs.

I repaired computers for free and I doubt that is the reason. Cheap computers are good because they're cheap, in they all reach a point of diminishing returns very quickly for basic browsing, so much that a basic arm phone that is free with prepaid is more than sufficient.

Desktops are luxury items that aren't needed anymore, laptops are quickly becoming those too. People don't need computers, their computing needs change too and the iPad is better at mobility so many people just get a tablet rather than a computer anyway. Even I question my need of using a full gnu Linux phone once I was able to get chrome desktop extensions in a browser on Android.

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