Comment by CivBase

The "consumerism" mindset is a luxury created by a strong economy and high upward mobility. An unfortunate side effect is that as repair & reuse became less desireable, so too did repairability and logevity as features. Now that economic growth in the US has stagnated (particularly for the 99%), it's becoming aparent what we lost as nothing is made to last and companies are unwilling or unable to offer repairable, long lasting products. So even those who go out of their way to repair their property encounter a myriad of roadblocks.