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> That should be written on a poster that is put on each desk of each employee of each car/washing machine/fridge/television manufacturer.

And consumer. Very few people would use 50 year old devices even if they were/are perfectly functional.



Plenty of people buy secondhand equipment. Manufacturers want to stop that; spare parts are hard to get or needlessly expensive, and manuals are woefully incomplete or nonexistent.


I've contracted for someone whose customers thought so. (My job involved making stuff work with without an important part from a defunct vendor.)

Their costs really did increase all the time. Not needlessly, despite what some people thought: their cost per spare part really did grow quite a lot, as the number needed per year decreased and the fixed overhead slowly increased.


Speaking as a writer, I would use an IBM Model M keyboard in a heartbeat. Made in 1985, so 40 years old.


I have a few of those, I love them. They just work perfectly.


My sunbeam automatic toaster is working just fine thank you very much. :-)


I found one in a thrift store and I was so excited until I realized that they wanted $150 for it... even local thrift stores know what they have now


Alec? Is that you?




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