No - it's true. Try getting a washing machine repaired these days. My mum's old hotpoint was about 25 years old when it finally bit the dust, after various minor repairs over its last ten years. You can't expect a washing machine to last more than 8 yrs now, apparently. And then all that metal and plastic and so on just goes to the local dump and is gone. What a waste.
I was brought up to repair what could be repaired, and so was Mr Dicky (admittedly, this has led to him spending a month messing about with the laptop to install and up-to-date Linux on a machine which does not have an up-to-date processor and the result is fucking appalling - but can I tell him?), so we do tend to try our best to keep things going. I sometimes wonder if I am the only person I know who has a mending bag, and who can be bothered to repair a dress which cost ten euros on a market. Everything is so throw-away now, and it's disheartening. We bought a dishwasher last year and were told it had an expected life of eight to ten years with regular use. My thought was "Is that all?" It's a mid-range. Cheap ones go for five years, and then if you double what we spent then you can expect fifteen, and it might even be worth repairing (I kid you not - it's what the salesman said) if it goes wrong. The others you just chuck away.
In answer to your question, I have a stereo including an LP player which still works, though it's creaky. I'm hoping it will survive long enough for us to transfer the LPs to MP3. We're currently working through the massive student tape collection... The 19 yr old tape player/CD player is still going strong.
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I was brought up to repair what could be repaired, and so was Mr Dicky (admittedly, this has led to him spending a month messing about with the laptop to install and up-to-date Linux on a machine which does not have an up-to-date processor and the result is fucking appalling - but can I tell him?), so we do tend to try our best to keep things going. I sometimes wonder if I am the only person I know who has a mending bag, and who can be bothered to repair a dress which cost ten euros on a market. Everything is so throw-away now, and it's disheartening. We bought a dishwasher last year and were told it had an expected life of eight to ten years with regular use. My thought was "Is that all?" It's a mid-range. Cheap ones go for five years, and then if you double what we spent then you can expect fifteen, and it might even be worth repairing (I kid you not - it's what the salesman said) if it goes wrong. The others you just chuck away.
In answer to your question, I have a stereo including an LP player which still works, though it's creaky. I'm hoping it will survive long enough for us to transfer the LPs to MP3. We're currently working through the massive student tape collection... The 19 yr old tape player/CD player is still going strong.