maybe the most useless article that I've ever read.

 

I disagree that consumers would rather replace than repair an appliance.  As it is now, you cannot get replacement parts for an appliance over a couple of years old AND it is as much or more expensive to get an appliance repaired than it is to replace it.  This is industry's preference.  I don't think it is consumers--especiall​y those of us who are concerned about the environment.

The automotive industry in the U.S. is one of the areas that is doing fairly well now that they have re-organized and are making more efficient autos.  Even most of the foreign car manufacturers have assembly plants here and provide good NON UNION jobs in communities that had limited opportunities.  The repair/service part of it does well also.  Anyone who has taken their vehicle in for service lately can tell you that.

 

My belief is that unions have overstepped causing manufacturing jobs to go elsewhere.  You can't pay unskilled workers the kind of wages unions demand and compete in a global market.  Think about that while you eat your last Twinkie.

There is more than one way of looking at the "dying" industries.  I prefer American made clothing, but have a very hard time finding it.  The outsourced brands are very unreliable.  A batch of' travelers socks' may be comfortable, well-made and the size as marked one time, but going back to the same company and buying the same socks the next time is a crap shoot. It would be nice to be able to buy American-made shoes, or shoes from Brazil, Mexico, Spain and a bunch of other places who make shoes well.  Instead they come from China, and the shoes are too low across the foot, the toes are cramped, and the heel cup is enormous.  Forget about the sizes being as marked.  Appliances are over-complicated, unreliable, and finding someone who knows how to repair that model?  Forget it.  You buy a new clothes washer and get a whole new set of problems because the computer (a computer, really?) won't reset after the first time you clean out the lint fillter.  And by the way, the sales person didn't mention that you need to spend nearly $300 more on a base with a silly drawer that doesn't slide properly, because you need the extra height to put a bucket under the drain hose, which is inconveniently located at the bottom of the washer, and drain the whole thing before you can clean out the filter. Buying an American brand like Kenmore won't help, because a) it's made someplace else, and b) Sears no longer has anybody available for repairs, according to a friend of mine. His search for a simple washing machine and attempts to get one that actually worked, or getting Sears to honor the warranty is a real saga.   Anyway, I could go on but you get the idea.  Eventually the companies that survive will come home because the cost of doing business elsewhere has gone up too much.  It's ironic that the Chinese have created a high demand for American-made goods in their own markets because they associate those goods with high quality.

Glad I did secondary education when research was the expected norm and an "A"  was an "A". Bet these MSN pundits are recent grads, perhaps from "for profit' edumacation mills. On this latter topic, MSN is all wet, once again. The data show a completely different trend from what these coddled writers aver. As usual, big government is firmly ensconced in the evil causal web. As with predatory home mortgage lending, the loose college loan dollars were huge incentives to borrow like mad to "attend" these money grubbing "juniorversities".  (Ask grandma about oil money  for all our asphalt  road infrastructure at the expense of the railroads, and you'll see a pattern. Can you say LOBBYISTS?) So the promise of jobs never really worked out (blame Bush, not Obama), lots of kids who really never were college material for starters are now saddled with (non dischargable- K Street, again) debt, living with parents, and way behind the American dream 8 ball. College loan debt now exceeds that of the toxic mortgages, and now folks are hip. So they are opting more for community colleges, state schools, etc., avoiding The "University" of Phoenix and their ilk, and avoiding debt. MSN staff, do your homework for a change.. Begin with the steep  falls in equity prices. Hope and change, sheeples. And they're just getting warmed up in DC. Watch your legislators, lobbyists, and predator drone Barry.  Aa.

it's not that we WANT to buy appliances when one breaks.....the companies make it difficult for repair people to get parts for affordable prices, or they discontinue parts to force people to buy new.  Some companies (Sears for example) charge ridiculously high repair prices, if you do not 1st buy the overpriced "warranty" when you buy their product, and makes it impossible for private repair techs to get parts.  It's the appliance industry that's wasteful and killing the repair indusry, NOT the consumer.

Whose the nimwit who wrote this totallu USELESS article. Give this boy/girl some real work to do. REDICULOUS.

wow this article is horrible.  Solar Panels, really.  have you noticed that Evergreen and Solyndra have filed for bankruptcy, they made solar panels.  In addition, SatCon Technology (maker of Solar Inverters) has just filed for Bankruptcy.  So sure go ahead and make solar panels.....wow what a bad article.  figured I would learn something, I guess not.

Solar panel companies thriving? Doesn't MSN read the news? How many U.S. solar panel companies have failed in the past few years?