It's just people hustling to get modicum of things first world takes for granted. We had this in Eastern Europe like 30 years ago and I can assure you - most wouldn't like to go back (even if then rather in spite of rather than because).
In communist Poland there was long-running (1959 to 1983) DIY TV program and it was one of the most popular things in TV. The person that did it (Adam Słodowy) was a celebrity.
Example show (in Polish but it doesn't matter): www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq8xiHZ_3nE
It was hard to buy anything except vinegar, so people did everything the Mc Gyver way.
It was huge waste of time, of course - DIY is fine as a hobby, but it's not efficient way to divide labour.
For complete from-scratch production, yes, it’s not cost-effective. But for repairs? Many times, you can’t get the parts for love or money, and it may well be worth the time.
The way things are, it's worth the time if your time is worthless. I find it hard to get out of that rabbit hole while my weekly budget could feed a family for a year on the other side of the globe. So all the DIY projects I undertake, I cannot justify them with economic efficiency.
Since you can’t get that family on the other side of the globe to do your repairs for you, it doesn’t compare.
Even if I have a well-paid job, I don’t want to buy a new WizzGig 5000 because a dinky part broke in my old Wizzy 650, but if there are no spare parts to be found, it may well be worth it, to me, to spend the time to make a replacement part. Someone else on the other side of the globe isn’t going to make one for me, so I have to choose between buying a new WizzGig 5000, making a replacement part myself, or doing without it.
Indeed, the point is that working and buying a new device would net me more money than spending the time I could've worked on fixing the device. I agree with you, though, I'd also rather fix a broken part that cost a dime, instead of throwing the whole thing away. It's just not worth it, if I only look at the money angle.
You still seem to assume that it wouldn’t actually be worth your time. My contention is that it might well be, unless your pay is astronomical. Imagine that the old model is discontinued and they only sell a different, newer, larger, much more expensive thing.
US citizens are hustling right now to get healthcare Cubans take for granted.
Furthermore, Cuba has been attacked by the US (yes, a country which usually shrinks from violence) with sanctions. Nice word for "siege". You know, kinda like the siege against Iraq which killed half a million children, strengthening the dictator we previously supported. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0WDCYcUJ4o)
Other nations south of the US did far worse on their knees to the US.
