rca repair charges

Because sometimes repair is the right way to do it. The older TV set might be a nicer one or a more robust design. Especially in this newsgroup most people know or learn how to perform their own repairs, so the cost will be nowhere near 125 dollars.

By the way, I thought RCA an GE were still owned by the French?

The brands are, (Thompson-Houston IIRC), but IMO they stick the brand on any piece of crap that won't sell otherwise.

RCA and GE consumer electronics brands in North America belong to Thomson SA, a publicly traded company headquartered in France.

The cost to repair a set has nothing to do with what the set costs to buy or is worth. In short, people don't pay to have the cheap junk fixed and that's just fine with RCA, they want to sell you a new set. And if you pay $167 what do you expect? It's a cheap disposable set, when it breaks you throw it out and buy a new one.

Here I go again...

I agree; far far better to continue to needlessly squander more and more of the earth's finite resources. To fill up landfill sites. To make sure that fellow young countrymen have no possible employment futures in the repair business. To further destroy the environment with manufacturing "exhausts". To waste more and more fuel shipping junk halfway round the world. And to send more and more of our dollars off to far away countries.

The US aquired their country from the indigenous people with flimsy shiny trinkets. Now China is aquiring North America with flimsy shiny trinkets.

Sorry for the sarcasm and the old man rant. Just gets me so mad.... :)

Ken

I am not unmoved by the arguments in favor of globalization and free imports and exports. However I believe these arguments are based on false premises and that disaster may well ensue as a result.

Not Disaster, Opportunity!! Our young were suggested to try and learn Japanese as a second language since that seemed to be the economic challenge globally, then it seemed to be Contentinental English, French, German, French, Etc. now it may be Chinese. Whet next, Roumlounian, from Space Balls?? <

What false premises, exactly do you see?

Leonard

I like fixing consumer electronics because I can, and because I can do it inexpensively and quickly (mostly). I admit that on the surface the economics of the situation would appear to dictate the consumer should trash the older non-working television and rush out to the nearest big box store to buy a new one, but consumers are irrational and they develop attachments to inanimate objects, plus some consumers are actually responsible and prefer to "recycle and reuse" instead of clogging their local landfills with non-biodegradable trash.

How you like 'them apples?

premises

First, a very simplistic analysis of exports and imports and their effects on the economy. It is a far cry from the export of cotton goods from England to France and the import of brandy from France to England, all in the 18th century, to the wholesale export of all manufacturing from the US to China in the 21st.

What data are you using for your analysis?

Leonard

Data? I am commenting on the talking heads who tell us how great it will all be when everything is made in China, or some cheaper place. They don't seem to be able to tell us what jobs we are going to do when that happens, or what will happen if there is a major disruption in shipping and the home factories need to be rapidly revived.

Ken...I always prided myself, while in the repair business, as being a recycler as well... :-)

Tom

One thing you have to give Thompson credit for - they make replacement parts available much longer than most other manufacturers. I can still get original high-voltage caps for '91-model RCA's......

any