From: Marcus Sundberg <mackan@stacken.kth.se>
  To  : ggi-develop@eskimo.com
  Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 23:39:03 +0200

The Good Old Days... (was: Re: Political-corporate rant)

Bob Nicksic wrote:
> > Actually I DO. That's how it was in Russia, allowing people to repair
> > theirradios/TVs whatever. I find it morally wrong that 1 year after I
> bought a
> > VCR
> > it breaks, and I have to fork out money to get it repaired since it does
> not
> 
> You are failing to realize that your vcr is *supposed* to break after a
> year ( or just after your warranty ends).  It is a little know policy of
> "engineering to fail", where a 2 cent piece of plastic is designed to fail
> so that they can charge you $35 to replace it (plus labor of course).  It
> is a sad state that companies are forced to resort to such price gouging
> and deceptive proctices to keep their _shareholders_ happy.  It is not
> about putting out a reliable and durable product anymore.  

I must agree with you there. They really DID make better things before.
My current VCR was bought 1981 (by my parents, I was too young to
buy a VCR then ;) and it still works fine. My TV is from '86 and 
it works like a charm, even though it fell on the floor so the
case cracked some years ago.

//Marcus
-- 
-------------------------------+------------------------------------
        Marcus Sundberg        | http://www.stacken.kth.se/~mackan
 Royal Institute of Technology |       Phone: +46 707 295404
       Stockholm, Sweden       |   E-Mail: mackan@stacken.kth.se