Why is it we feel the need to keep buying new cars, is the old one broken?

It seems to me that little of anything is actually fixed anymore in our country. When was the last time you took an appliance in for repair, a TV, a telephone or other electronic gadget? Seems that the system is somehow rigged against us, we are not only taught by the marketing folks who inundate us with new shiny baubles but the repair costs often exceed the replacement costs. WHY is that? Well I think it has a lot to do with the fact that most of the items we have were built in China or some other place where labor costs are so insignificant that it is cheaper to buy, financially anyway. Cheaper to pay them to build, build, build and in most cases ignore any and all environmental impacts of their actions, all for the mighty dollar to drive the economic machine of our world. When we need those items repaired we must use a local repairman, someone who is not working for pennies on the dollar, someone who is regulated to death and someone who is just like you and I – searching for more money to buy more stuff.

I say enough of that bullshit! Bride and I have taken the first steps, we have old cars. There are many reasons but mainly we want out of car payments and we want out of costly repairs bills that the newer computer controlled cars bring. If my car is missing or not running right, I know it is the points, plugs or carburetor. I do not need a 100 thousand dollar diagnostic machine to know that, it is inherent knowledge for anyone who knows how a basic 4 cycle internal combustion engine works. The exact same principles apply if I were working on my lawn mower engine. Simplicity, plain and simple. Now some will say that without the computer controls we would not be getting the gas mileage we are now, to which I say bullshit!! My 1958 ford with a three speed manual transmission with over drive, yes they had an operational overdrive system in 1958, gets between 25 and 26 miles to gallon around town. So do not tell me that over the last 53 years no one has come up with a way to improve mileage without a microprocessor and some software.

We also have the old cars because I can fix anything that may go wrong with them, from converting to disc brakes for better stopping power to rebuilding the engine if it needs it. NAPA still has almost every part that I have needed for my Jalopy, and they could order some others and for the ones they did not carry, I could order in more than a dozen other places. We also have them because we love the classic design of the older cars, big, shiny and lots of chrome – they do not make cars like that now. They took a lot of resources to build but it was the of the most abundant resources available, iron ore. To me I would not know a 2008 Maximum from a 2011 Altima which have more plastic (petroleum based resource) than ever before. I can however tell the difference between the 1958 and 1959 Fords. I have enjoyed teaching Bride all the specs on her car as well, she can spout off to anyone who inquires more information than they could know to ask for. She has put more than one man in their place, the ones who thought a car like that would be the husbands pride and joy. A person inquiring of me would ask, what ya got in that car – knowing that I would know what size engine it has. They have and do ask Bride, do you know what ya got in there, assuming she would not. So when she can say, yes I have the 289 with a 2 barrel carburetor, 195 horsepower stock they are most times taken aback. That alone is worth having old cars.

So anyway, enough about cars for a moment. When we are forced to continue to by new and discard the old we have to start thinking about other things. What do I mean by that? Well we have to start thinking about the impact of that on both side of the court. It is (or should be) forcing us to look at and start to understand the supply side of the equation. At the massive amount of resources (some very limited) we are using to create all our things. We are literally moving mountains to get to the natural resources that are used to create all our things. We are decimating our planet at an unsustainable rate while we hunt for and extract from the ground all the things we need. The Deep Horizon oil well was out in Gulf of Mexico because we want the products that resource allows us to have. We will continue to create risky ways of getting to the resources and in turn when the 1% possibility happens we will stand and wonder – why. Well stop wondering as you are watching the story on a TV that was manufactured using more of the resource they were going after than any of the other resources required to make a TV. Our throw aways has created a floating trash pile in the pacific that is the size of the Great State of Texas, items discarded from ships and tossed into the water or storm drains. Ponder for a moment the impact of a floating trash pile the size of the Great State of Texas – boggle the mind to even think about it, at least for me. When I say unsustainable, that is what I mean. The industrial revolution started less than 150 years ago and look at us now. Ponder it for a while and it gets scary.

On the other side of that coin we are forced to replace our items after a finite period of time. I say forced because the manufacturing and marketing machine of world keeps telling us we need this latest thing or that new gadget. We need to stream video at the same time are texting and making a call. I can barely walk and chew gum at the same time, I do not need this capability, none of need this capability, we may want it but need NO WAY. We do however feel it is our right to have it, so we create the demand and manufacturing steps in and provides the supply. We think little about what it takes to create that and what the long term impacts are going to be. The period of time that between replacing our gadgets continues to get shorter.

Due to much better manufacturing processes the MTBF (mean time between failure) has improved on everything that is made, why then has our replacement periodicity decreased precipitously? That is so we can be forced to buy new, supply the economic engine of the world. If you start to follow this out a few years it does not take long to see that we are plummeting towards calamity. I am not sure when or how exactly and it probably won’t be in my lifetime but it is coming and anyone who does not think so has their head in the sand.

Bride and I have started to seriously evaluate more of the things in our lives, I hate to use the word carbon footprint because that term has already been high jacked and an entire industry is cropping up around that. But we need to look at ourselves and the impact we are having on our planet. As I sit and write this I did not think this is where this blog was going to go when I started but here I am. Another thing I never thought is that I would take this stance, my life has been a classic example of use, consumption and excess and I liked it. If I had read this 10 years ago I would have written me off as some crazy assed tree hugger and came up with 100 ways to discredit me. What scares me is with China and India coming into their own as economic power houses our planet is in trouble. China is scavenging the planet to acquire the resources necessary to create a United States like environment there. Between China and India there are 8 times the people (2.5 BILLION people) we have here and when you think about how much of the world’s resources the United States has consumed, imagine a rate 8 times that, it is unsustainable.

Not sure what my message is here, I guess I would ask that you ponder a bit on your impact on the world. Take paper or bring your bags to grocery store. Don’t by the apples from Uruguay, imagine how much fuel it took to get them here. Start looking at whether your purchases are biodegradable and are environmentally friendly. What is the projected life span and what will it cost you to have it repaired. And know this, I am not a crazy assed tree hugger. I am just someone who has come to realization that we (planet earth’s population) is on a bad course that will eventually lead to our downfall if we do not change our ways, and that starts with us as individuals.