On Wed, 1 Sep 2004 09:33:30 UTC, wrote:

I think lack of conscience is not a communist problem per se. This
having been said, I know that at least some European communist
countries, tried to make their design and manufacturing as solid as
possible. Because in their philosophy there was no such thing as
unemployment, and there often was a shortage of supplies, there was no
reason not to put a good amount of engineering into their stuff. I can
confirm 2 East-German black and white TV sets running since 1988 without
needing repairs (and many more of those sets in continuous use in the
Prague metro, if they were not drowned 2 years ago). Some radio
collectors can confirm as well that East German and Czech radio's seem
rather well built (alltough I have not seen too many of those, but what
I have seen was nice).

What next? Will we be pining away for East German and Soviet era
products like the Trabant, Lada, ZIL?

It's one thing to restore and operate an HT-32B/SX-115 but East
German consumer electronics?

The solution to the trash and recycling problem is a bit more
attention to repair and disposal on the design and manufacturing
side, and a recycling deposit.

If the stuff were easier to fix and upgrade, it wouldn't be pitched
out so quickly.

Can't do much about cell phones, portable CD players, and other
smallish items but the big stuff should be fixable or recycleable.

If new consumer electronics were tagged with a barcoded serial
number and a $1, $5, or $10 deposit levied on each item. The
recycling industry could pay people to bring the stuff back.

de ah6gi/4 - No chance of my 75S-1, SB-303, or SX-100 ever
going to the landfill.