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I have an idea for a program to promote businesses that are good for the environment because they help people repair things. Places like tailors, cobblers, electronics repair are all at risk of vanishing along with the skills required to do these things.

Right at a moment when we should be making repair and longevity a bigger part of material culture.

My cobbler is very old and isn't training anyone to take over.

Just telling people to repair things won't cut it.

in reply to myrmepropagandist

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myrmepropagandist

There needs to be:

* incentives to manufacture things that can be repaired
* a general shift to see repairability as a sign of quality, luxury and responsibility
* training a new generation to do the work
* support for these trades so it's a viable way of life

Having a job fixing things is one of those types of work that can nourish the soul. But it needs to nourish the wallet too.

This entry was edited (3 months ago)
in reply to myrmepropagandist

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myrmepropagandist

I think the disappearance of these kinds of trades feeds the feeling that the modern world is terrible and strange strains of nostalgia that right wing politicians seem adept at exploiting and turning in to much uglier things... without ever bringing back any of the things from "the good old days" that were actually good.

Like shoes that you could love and have for 25 years.

I've heard people suggest that products that last slow economies. That isn't true. They change who gets to make money.

in reply to Michael Roberts

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myrmepropagandist

@vivtek

The environmental angle is critical, but so is the way that not being able to fix things, or have them fixed by people we know robs us of a certain opportunity for dignity. There is a young person walking the Bronx who could have been learning to fix shoes, who could have had a future doing something that people would thank them for. And there are several hundred people who will have shoes that make them sad as they toss them in the trash one after the other. Seems like a bad trade.

in reply to myrmepropagandist

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Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK

@vivtek for all the environmental problems they cause, one thing which does regularly get repaired and reused are cars - but even here there's a problem where all the garages want to hire /trained/ mechanics but none of them want to invest in training the new generation (and often won't even hire those just out of college, they want experienced staff only, and apprentice wages are only sufficient for teenagers living with parents, which discourages older people who might want a career change).

Also many workplaces have a fairly stressful or even toxic environment..

This is something that is a problem across all skilled trades (at least here in UK, but could be across the entire "Western" world), and needs to change quickly.

in reply to Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK

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Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK

@vivtek as for the Austrian telephone in the article, pretty much every European country in the 20th century had a similar telephone set, easily repairable with a modular design - but they were often only available for rental via a nationalised telephone provider, who commissioned the devices to a strict technical standard (they were usually built by a number of private companies, but it didn't matter which one the telephone came from as it would always be the same specification and compatible with all the others).

(this is one of the British equivalents, a 700 series telephone)

700 series telephone, designed by the British Post Office and widely used from the late 1960s to early 1990s
in reply to su_liam

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Michael Roberts

@su_liam @vfrmedia Oh, it's worse even than you think (maybe). I operate a farm (part-time, very part-time) and there's a lot of weed trimming involved. I particularly like the Ryobi battery trimmers. But the parts compatibility is broken *between releases*. The mounting screws are in different places in differently aged shafts - not because it's better, but because it means you can't reuse a shaft from a year-old trimmer.
in reply to myrmepropagandist

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Patrick Hadfield

you may be aware that last year the EU introduced the "right to repair" to address exactly some of the issues you raise. /1

europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pre…


Right to repair: Making repair easier and more appealing to consumers | News | European Parliament

The new rules reinforce the right to repair, aim to reduce waste and bolster the repair sector by making it easier and more cost-effective to repair goods.
www.europarl.europa.eu
in reply to myrmepropagandist

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Jeff Shaffer CBET, ret

Another aspect of this is the way in which companies allocate resources. I worked for lots of different hospitals in my career, repairing expensive medical equipment. When the C suite folks were budgeting for a new service, they might invest millions to roll it out. They were willing to spend money on a dubious new service to bring in more money but didn’t want to invest in existing infrastructure servicing existing equipment so lots of repairs had to be done by outside contractors who charged so much more. They never saw value in saving money on repairs as equal to bringing in money from new business
in reply to myrmepropagandist

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Graydon

Nother step back.

Cheap stuff is cheap so people who are underpaid can still have it.

This doesn't start with manufacturing margins; it starts with the desire to underpay. (Which in turn causes nigh-everybody to be strictly concerned with up-front price, because they can't afford what they need.) (Profit-motive and initial-price-driven decisions are terrible decisions in any longer term context, but they do concentrate money.)

Any sustainability fix requires a flat(ish) economy.

in reply to myrmepropagandist

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Lstn2urmama 🇨🇦

There was once upon a time till the RICH were not getting richer so they started doing many things cheaper since the 70's especially 80's when the start of the disposable society began 2% of the population only thinks of their pockets & the boards who they have to rule others & their pockets ...THE REST OF US MEAN NOTHING TO THEM 🚨🚨🚨

Then the domino affect where everyone else wants their share down the line ...there are MANY middlemen since then...IS OUTRAGEOUSLY DANGEROUS ...

in reply to myrmepropagandist

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Manc AvGeek

There has been something of a resurgence in interest in jobs of this sort inbthe UK in recent years, at least partly driven by a tv show called The Repair Shop, in which craftsmen (and women) restore and repair old, usually vintage, items, many of which were originally handmade.
With slightly more modern tech, there is a YouTuber who goes by the name TechMoan who scours the Web for interesting audio/video kit, which is often sold as "Not Working", or for spares, and tries to fix it.
He's not an expert, just someone who knows enough to get into trouble, which makes it all the more interesting.
And he lives about 20 miles away from me, which is kinda cool.
There are people out there who do this sort of thing, they just tend to charge more for repairs than it costs to buy a new item, which unfortunately disincentivises repair.
in reply to myrmepropagandist

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Wyatt H Knott

Alec Steele is a young blacksmith on YT. My favorite series of his is when he goes to very old British businesses and learns about classic manufacturing. A scissors factory tour was awesome, but one of the best ones was a recent visit to a high-end firearms manufacturer, because they are committed to the apprentice system, and have new workers going through a trade program where they make their own tools and do an absolute fuckton of handwork to get their skills in shape. Awesome.
in reply to myrmepropagandist

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Jeff

More people also need to be willing to buy used and repaired items. It seems to be mostly garage sales or thrift stores where you can get used items, and that often means used and neglected. There would be a business acquiring such items for next to nothing, repairing them, and reselling for a profit, if there's a market for it. I've seen it with bikes, but not much else.
in reply to myrmepropagandist

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Nicole Parsons

Japan has a system of funding for the preservation of its cultural heritage & the skills that made them.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihon_…

A similar system of education & support for ecological practices could be created.

The scene in "Yellowstone" where an elderly iron worker making spurs is the last of his kind, is beyond saddening.
abc7amarillo.com/news/local/le…

What is more quintessentially American than a cowboy?

The ability to make & fix things is equally so.


public interest incorporated foundation established in February 1948

Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)
in reply to myrmepropagandist

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Twoowls Elt

Absolutely here for this thread. I have a side gig repairing 70s/80s hifi (more of a hobby) which is fun & keeps my EE practical skills in focus. I repair small appliances for folk in our village when I get asked. I replace batteries and switches in ‘fitness watches’ for runners. All stuff that would end up in landfill. If I can get it working then that’s brilliant for me, them and the environment. Sadly I’ll never make a living doing it, which is why it’s a side gig
in reply to myrmepropagandist

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David Nash

My wife recently became the caretaker (for lack of a better word) of a grandfather clock that her parents have had for about 50 years. (Caretaker because it’s ultimately intended to go to one of her sisters, but it’s not clear when, or even if, that’s happening any time soon.)

The clock is in good shape overall, but her parents left it unmaintained for a long time before letting go of it, and it wasn’t working correctly when we got it in place at home.

It needed only minor repairs to work correctly, but these were a bit beyond routine owner maintenance (the pendulum mount needed to be adjusted slightly in a non-obvious way, and the actual clockwork needed to be oiled properly). The original manufacturer was long defunct, major furniture and similar stores no longer keep people around to do things like this, and it took a couple of weeks to find someone who could do the work. He was an older (I’d guess 70-ish) man who does oddball jobs like this in retirement, having done a lot of mechanical repair work while still working full time (20-50 years ago) that is no longer commonplace.

This is in a major metro area (Portland, OR) in the US.

We’re not entirely sure what we would have done if it had needed more significant work, or what we’d do if we still have the clock when it next needs significant maintenance work.

in reply to myrmepropagandist

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Abram Kedge 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇨🇦

I saw this great feel-good story of a young local cobbler last week. I hope he inspires more people to take it up.

dunfermlinepress.com/news/2515…


Dunfermline cobbler Mark Gibson on international attention

Footwear enthusiasts from as far as Canada and the United States have travelled to Scotland to have their most treasured boots repaired by a…
Rory Fell (Dunfermline Press)
in reply to myrmepropagandist

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Claude LeChat

Tailor shops are plentiful where I live. Cobblers, not so much. It broke our hearts some years ago when our favorite cobbler lost his apprentice to an illness, and by then he was too old to take on a new apprentice. A couple of others have come and gone since. Now there's just one left in the neighborhood. Same with computer repair shops. Been doing so much business with our last one for the past five or six years.

There's still a clockmaker in the neighborhood, too; another shop I used to know in town closed down sometime in the last year. So did the nearby photography shop where I kept meaning to take my old film camera. No idea when that happened; one day I simply noticed it was gone.

This entry was edited (3 months ago)
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