It's really disgusting/disheartening to have seen society move from a generation of "buy once, service/maintain forever" to "throw out, buy another one".<p>It's made it increasingly hard to repair everything from household items to personal digital devices - manufacturers only letting "official" depots carry replacement parts, voiding the warranty if you "work on it yourself" (not that that's legal in the US), etc.<p>Manufacturers of smart devices like Apple/Google/Samsung offering "mail-out" kits with tools/instructions to "do it yourself" is a lame, stop-gap solution for these companies to continue to extract every possible bit of capital out of you - it would be much more environmentally friendly and cost effective to just allow third party repair companies to either repair devices themselves or be contracted out by manufacturers - but they won't because they're able to extract even more money from you.<p>Planned obsolescence, electronic parts/chips that have been designed to be irreplaceable with firmware locks/serialization that only manufacturers can authorize, it's all just plainly anti-consumer behaviour under the guise of "security" and "safety".<p>It's safe to replace the handle, plastic cowlings, mechanical parts on your fridge - it's safe to replace the screen/digitizer/battery on your phones (if it wasn't safe, why do we carry them around in our pockets all day?) - it's safe to replace the motor or belt on your washing machine/dryer. Give people the documentation and _EASY_ access to the parts - and let third-parties make your parts too - and I'm sure you'll see a bunch of small businesses rise up to the task of making sure your GE washer doesn't need to be thrown into the landfill because of a $500 circuit board that "they just don't make anymore!"