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Six months ago, I purchased a new "over the range" microwave oven. Wanting to have a trouble free appliance I purchased a Maytag. Looked great - worked very well - now the motor burned out and has to be replaced. (I had a separate circuit installed just for this appliance) When asked how this could happen the repairman told me that since most appliances or parts thereof are manufactured overseas, this is what is happening. In my case the appliance was manufactured in Korea.

Seem's like a lot of things I buy these days are made elsewhere and since it costs quite a bit to repair when they break down, it is actually cheaper to buy another item new.

I remember many years ago, after WWII to be exact, when almost everything was made in America and built to last. People took pride in their work and put out quality items. I remember joking about the "Made in Japan" labels when their merchandise started coming onto the market.

Guess we should look into expanding our landfills!

Good points. back then. things were meant to be repaired but today, if they break, to the landfill they go. I think this plays into our role as a desposable, "get it now and make a quick buck" wasteful society that we have now. I have a 1982 Zenith TV that we bought new in early 1983, we had it fixed a couple of times and it is our main TV set to this day. I still have a 1970 Zenith I'd like to tinker and get up and running again but that's for another time. I disagree with the greenies on most things but this is where I am in agreement with them on, we have become too much of a disposable, wasteful society when we make products that go into landfills right off the bat instead of fixing them first. On one other forum I'm on, I know one guy who likes to fix old TV's (and cars, he still drives a 1970 Dodge Polara station wagon) and sometimes samples what people are tossing out. He came upon a 1989/90 RCA Colortrak TV on the curb, well, he decided to toss it in the Dodge and take it home to fix. Well his curiousity got the best of him and he decided to fire it up, it came on, nothing wrong with it, perfect condition yet people were going to toss it into the trash. One of my favorite people to read is noted futurist R. Buckminster Fuller, although I don't like his ideas of removing national borders, he did make such a point way back in the 1970's that we must quit being so wasteful although it does seem worse now than it was then.