I would say it's a very americentric world view. There are a lot of cultures who are the opposite. Or who were the opposite and increasingly turned into a more consumeristic society. I'm not a person that is particularly good at maintenance, but compared to friends I've had from London or bigger US and Canadian cities I've seen a lot of people very surprised when I decided to fix things instead of just buying a new one. Even if its just a 20 buck wallet with a broken seam.
I can already imagine a bunch of people here saying to themselves my hourly rate is worth much more than this 20 bucks wallet and yes, so is mine, but there is something pleasing about not throwing everything away at the first sign of wear.
When you say "Humans simple do NOT" what you really mean is "MY demographic does not". Even in the US or Canada that is very much dependent on the area and the demographic you grew up. I am not at all surprised that people who's only goal in life is to make as much money as people in the valley and who buy a new iphone every 1 or 2 years find the act of maintaining things insane.
Unfortunately this problem has seeped through society in which I would call the proliferation of business school graduates who are now at the top of most business chains and who have traded any long term benefit for short term gains.
Things that are maintained usually have more character. That wooly jumper with the elbow patches or that old motorcycle that's had the engine rebuilt. Of course nowadays people will just opt to buy the new version of something that is made to look like it was old and remade. But the old things were usually of better quality materials and the idiosyncratic details of a maintainer simply can't be recreated in something new and mass produced.
Completely agree, but at the same time a lot of people (myself included) criticize Germans for being terrible customers, because they expect things they buy to last a very long time, be repairable and also cheap. I.e. they don't buy often. Contrast that to how Americans are considered to be "good consumers".
I can already imagine a bunch of people here saying to themselves my hourly rate is worth much more than this 20 bucks wallet and yes, so is mine, but there is something pleasing about not throwing everything away at the first sign of wear.
When you say "Humans simple do NOT" what you really mean is "MY demographic does not". Even in the US or Canada that is very much dependent on the area and the demographic you grew up. I am not at all surprised that people who's only goal in life is to make as much money as people in the valley and who buy a new iphone every 1 or 2 years find the act of maintaining things insane.
Unfortunately this problem has seeped through society in which I would call the proliferation of business school graduates who are now at the top of most business chains and who have traded any long term benefit for short term gains.