To: ProgressingAmerica
Oil changes are still remove a bolt, let the oil drain out.
The oil and lube places are just as cheap as changing yourself, and some cars are best brought for the dealer brand oil and filters (e.g. Toyota), at least while under warranty.
By the way, for hanging pictures, do it right and find a stud instead of using those wall anchors.
I am not particularly handy, but I have all the tools in the list, and would add a stud sensor as an essential.
I don't see this as strictly a collective versus individual thing. In a way, it strikes me as a return to the upper middle class having servants available ... handy men, drivers, maids, cooks. The fast food/fast casual places have replaced the cook ... half of meals are eaten out by millenials, and some of the ones at home are as simple as putting a box in a microwave. Some things that used to lend themselves to repair are no longer designed to make that practical (e.g. most shoes, some furniture, children's toys).
Uber and Lyft are urban replacements for at least having two cars if not none at all. The dream of self-driving cars also takes the place of a chauffeur, and so to a lesser degree does GPS.
Alexa and Siri take the place of "looking it up in an Almanac or dictionary.
Craigslist and Takl etc. make finding non-union fixit men easy and inexpensive. Working wives who aren't interested in housework and want hubby to watch kids too take themselves out of the fixit/maintain it game while generating more income for the Uber driver, Panera Bread, and Takl yardwork guy.
So, is some of this the loss of the American farm boy do it all, or the American mechanically inclined city guy who can fix anything just like he does in the shop or on the factory floor? Probably. Some of these Millenials are exceptional at configuring or even programming their phones and laptops to do amazing things that would have been done by manual labor a few years ago.
My own son is post Millenial (2008), and though I ma more an IT guy than a mechanical/carpentry guy, he has seen me install shelves, repair furniture, and do yard work. Unlike my own dad, I no longer have a reason to pull the tubes out of the TV set and take them down to Caldor, Lafayette or Radio Shack to test them for replacements! Times and needs change.
To: Dr. Sivana
The oil and lube places are just as cheap as changing yourselfTrue. I used to change my own oil in my younger days. But frankly I'd rather spend my Saturday afternoons doing something else. So I'll pull into an oil change place during the week and have somebody else do it for about $30 while I catch up on office email in the waiting area. To me the $30 is well worth getting my Saturday afternoon back.
I also have a handyman come by periodically to do odds and ends around the house like touch up paint, put in the screens, hang a wall-mounted TV, etc. All stuff I'm capable of doing myself but I prefer to pay somebody else in exchange for having more time to do other things.
So it's not about being lazy or incapable for many people.
To: Dr. Sivana
The oil and lube places are just as cheap as changing yourself, and some cars are best brought for the dealer brand oil and filters (e.g. Toyota), at least while under warranty. Go to any automotive forum and you can read plenty of horror stories about dealers, jiffy lubes and independents screwing up a simple oil change. I have car that came with free lifetime oil changes and I still refuse to let the dealer touch it. My pickup came with two free oil changes. I still refused to let the dealer touch it. I just changed the oil in my wife's car last night. It's a very simple procedure. Drive up on the ramps, open up the Fumoto oil drain valve and let drain completely, not 30 to 60 seconds, change the filter, put in new oil. It's a very simple process and I did it right in my garage.
To: Dr. Sivana
‘In a way, it strikes me as a return to the upper middle class having servants available’
Face it, life today for many is like the extreme wealthy had it years ago. Anyone remember a TV without a remote. That was common unti the mid 1990s. My daughter makes several bucks cleaning house for ‘common people’. For many, it is basic economics and ‘utility’. And if we are trained these days, it is to do 2 things at once. Such as have the oil changed while checking email that was also posted. I agree males need to know how to do many things, but today, many times it is simpler to have it done.
43 posted on
06/08/2019 10:14:58 AM PDT by
taterjay
To: Dr. Sivana
But do we really want to see our sons turn into the upper class twits mocked mercilessly in previous generations? There is a reason Wodehouse named Bertie Woosters hangout The Drones Club in his Jeeves stories. Seems to dovetail perfectly with this article.
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