Throwaway culture/labor costs

[thelawnet]

My son & daughter both have the same phone; I can buy a replacement for £105.

Anyway, my son cracked his screen, but not so badly that it was unusable. I bought a new screen online in Indonesia for ~£9, and took it to a repair shop, where they charged me the equivalent of £2.20 to repair (slightly tricky job, took half an hour approx.).

On the way to the airport my daughter broke her screen more catastrophically. Local shop in England wants £40 without parts, or £70 with parts to do the job.

So roughly 20x more expensive labour costs (would me 20x if not for Brexit-related exchange-rate slump). Almost better off throwing it in the bin...

I also had a wheel rebuilt with a new freehub recently; that cost me around £1.50 in Indonesia. (The freehub was £30). I think in England the shop would often sell a new wheel and bin the old one.

The local Indonesian minimum wage is around £133/month, but plenty don't get that much. UK minimum wage is around 9x higher, so it's not surprising things cost a lot more to repair in the UK, but it obviously makes a difference to how much things are consumed/thrown away.

[rjb]

Colleagues of mine would always take their eye prescription on holiday with them if going to the far East, india etc. They could save £400 on a pair of specs made there in preference to the UK. Saved a huge amount towards there holiday.

[thelawnet]

Colleagues of mine would always take their eye prescription on holiday with them if going to the far East, india etc. They could save £400 on a pair of specs made there in preference to the UK. Saved a huge amount towards there holiday.

Since when did a pair of specs cost £400?

[Cugel]

Colleagues of mine would always take their eye prescription on holiday with them if going to the far East, india etc. They could save £400 on a pair of specs made there in preference to the UK. Saved a huge amount towards there holiday.

Since when did a pair of specs cost £400?

Prescription Oakleys.

Cugel

[Hobbs1951]

Prescription Oakleys.

Cugel

Nah, mine didn't cost that.

John.

[rjb]

Last pair Mrs RJB had cost over£500 for a wide field pair of varifocals.
Nothing special about the frames ie not paying for a brand name, the cost goes into the complex grinding of the lenses.

[thelawnet]

Colleagues of mine would always take their eye prescription on holiday with them if going to the far East, india etc. They could save £400 on a pair of specs made there in preference to the UK. Saved a huge amount towards there holiday.

Since when did a pair of specs cost £400?

Prescription Oakleys.

Yes they are a rip-off, not sure they'll be much cheaper in Asia unless you get fake ones though.

[al_yrpal]

I have ordered my glasses from the US for years. Even with the import duty they are about half price with top quality lenses.

Al

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
With no special coatings online you can get for £110.

Saw a program on tv where standard lenses cost a few pounds.
My prescription glasses cost £15, owned them for two years and have no problem using them today, 4 pairs.
I use one for doing all my work under the car etc, even sit on them and they don't break.