whisky-dave wrote
Rod Speed wrote
whisky-dave wrote
RJH wrote
Bill Wright wrote

In the interests of the conservation of materials and
energy, should not DIY, especially the repair of goods,
be a priority for the environmental movement?

I do, but it needs working at.

One of the worst excesses of DIY has to be single
household tool proliferation. So, this sort of thing:

http://www.brighthub.com/environment...les/54244.aspx

DIY on its own as it stands probably wastes more than it saves.

Also, skill sharing. IMHO DIY gets bodged because the DIYer
doesn't have the time/experience to get up to speed. It often
takes me three or four times to get things even remotely right,

if it take you 4 times longer I can only assume you do it for fun. ;-)

So why don't people get pros in... the answer is usually cost.

I do it myself because I get a better result because
the time doesn't cost me anything and I can do
whatever it takes to get the best result in the end.

Well I have a job so it doesnt always make sense to DIY as
to me my time is worth money even if I didn't have a job.

Your time isnt worth money when you do the DIY in the
evenings or on the weekends when you aren't working.

The most you can validly claim is that you would
rather do something else like veg out in front of
the TV or down the pub etc.

And if you don't have a job, you time isnt worth anything
when you would just do something else instead like veg
out in front of the TV or read the paper etc.

Some will spend hours in the garden pottering
about, I havent been in mine this year so far.

Same with work on the car etc.

Like your advice to get a pet put down is to buy a stun gun
on ebay use it and then resell it where as I'd prefer to take
the pet to the RSPCA where they'll do it for noithing or a
mall donation which you don't really have to make.

I'm not into parasiting on other people like that.

I think my way is better.

More fool you with DIY.

With all of the marmalade, relish, beer, spirits, house,
car, aircraft maintenance, computers, appliance repair,
vegy growing etc etc etc I get a MUCH better result
DIYing it than paying someone else to do it for me.

With some stuff like the heart stent, skin cancers,
dentistry, glasses etc I get a better result paying
someone to do it than I can do myself.

whereas some things seem more natural. So share skills:

https://www.impossible.com

(don't know anything about them, but does
seem to organise the principle of skill sharing)

Really , just seemed like an expensive place to shop.

£70 for an ipad case ! that's even more than Aple charge !

http://shop.impossible.com/collectio...hose-ipad-case

And then there's the issue of putting trades people out of work.

Not just trades peolpe but what of all those economic migrants looking
for work or ayslum seekers who don't want benifits but want to work. :-)