laws and throwing stuff away

[raymansean]

I have been subjected to a lot of political commercials lately and i am shocked by one the proposes new "tougher" laws are required to deal with DWI! I disagree!!!!!!! How about instead of passing new laws that make more people criminals, we better fund our executive branch so that they can enforce the laws that we have? The legislature can write

Comments

[stizzyocayce]

"...it was X yrs old and it would have cost more to repair it than it was worth? How do you define worth?"

General rule of thumb: What would it cost to do a durable fix? Is there some other way to spend the same money (no more) and end up with a better product? That is, given what needs to be spent, how coan one most efficiently spend that money.

For the first time we bought a car together, replacing SWMBO's old vehicle, the one she had when we married, it was simple. The monthly cost of repairs over six months was substantially more than a car payment. It became cheaper to ditch the Ford and buy a new, reliable vehicle (one of the first Hyundai's sold in the States; it gave us 216K and 12 years before it threw a rod in Peoria).

Yesterday's decision was a bit harder. For less than the cost of SWMBO's new Honda Fit, we could certainly have had the Saturn engine torn down and that acceleration clatter found & fixed. But SWMBO makes a compelling case for having a spare vehicle. Heaven knows we've had to borrow plenty of times in our life, so I guess it's our turn to have one to loan out. I'd still like to find and fix that clatter (which I had thought was valve related, but Andrew's Auto says is coming from deeper in the motor -- what do you do when it's your mechanic saying, "I don't think you want to fix this one"?). So now we have three vehicles: two Hondas and a GM; for two vehicles built in America and one in Japan; ten regular use wheels, two temporary spares carried in the vehicles, and one full size spare in the shed.

Computer wise: every computer I've bought is in the study. The old fat mac from 1986 (upgraded as far as it could be), and the current-use 700MHz G3 iMac from late 2000 / early 2001. That 'puter will get replaced sooner than the old one was, and for the same reason. The software upgrades are moving past the hardware. And this sort of obsolescence is happening quicker than in the past; hardware gets outstripped by software advancements that require better hardware. I don't think the iMac will be 10 when it gets replaced. But as long as USB is still the standard, I'll keep using my Kensington keyboard & trackball.

I've managed to avoid washer & dryers with electronic controls. The mechanical controls are more durable and easier to swap out when they die (which is rarely). The toaster oven got replaced when its temp sensor (non-replaceable) got trashed by a burning flatbread. It was still a taoster, but no longer held a consistent temp, and I mainly use it as a small oven.

You ask yourself the questions and do the best you can.

Izzy