Re: Fed-up with slow fix of potholes?
Posted: 20 Nov 2023, 5:32pm
Imagine for a moment that you're living on the breadline, you have virtually zero spare cash and what you do have goes on servicing debts, the basic cost of living and a choice between eating and heating. A position that tragically many people find themselves in.fastpedaller wrote: ↑19 Nov 2023, 4:52pm But in the end they will need fixing properly. You wouldn't get in a roofer to patch up the roof of your house several times instead of replacing the broken tile!
The roof is leaking and it'll cost £500 to fix it - you don't have that and can't get it but the roofer says he'll bang a bit of tarp over it for £50 cash in hand. You can (just about) afford that and you don't have much choice.
Two months later - same thing, the tarp is ripped or has blown off so the same situation arises. You still have no chance of getting £500 so the same £50 repair is your only choice. So yes - you absolutely would get the roofer in multiple times because you cannot afford anything else.
There's something called the Boots Theory that describes it well:
Good boots cost $50 and can be expected to last 10 years.
Cheap boots cost $20 and can be expected to last 2 years
A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
That position is most UK councils now. Cheap short-term repairs is all they can afford.