On Wed, 26 May 2010 05:25:21 -0700 (PDT), sparky wrote:

Lead free solder was invented by the government since they knew it
would create more jobs (taxes) as the lead free solder caused trouble
and things were thrown out instead of being repaired.

surface mount, package pin densities, and labor costs have guaranteed
that almost nothing is repaired beyond the board level making solder type
irrelevent. Even board level repairs are unlikely when the cost of
repairing an item is far higher than its replacement cost.

Leadfree solder was created not to cause electronics be discarded
instead of repaired, but *because* electronics were being discarded in
great numbers. Even for items that can be repaired, they frequently
aren't repaired because anything older than about 18 months is
obsolete in the mind of the consumer.