Scrapping makes you smarter!!!

Originally Posted by skylinejack

I picked up a dryer the other day that was 34 years old. Don't remember the brand right now. I'll get it for you later. The owner, who is 82, bought a new one at Home Depot. They told him he'll be lucky to get 15 years service out of it. Big difference from then and now.

My washer and dryer (both made by Whirlpool, branded as Amana) are right at the 15 year old mark. The washer's timer kept burning contacts which I would then clean up with emery board and get another 5-6 months of service out of it. I finally swapped the timer a year or so ago and it's running fine.

The dryer's motor quit about six months ago. I shopped around town (metro Detroit) and couldn't find one for less than $150, which apparently was a price designed to make a new dryer start looking good. I bought a new replacement motor on eBay for ~$75. Get this: it was drop-shipped to my house from one of the stores in town that wanted to sell it to me for $150! I put a new belt, rollers, and glide strips into it while I was at it. Here's hoping I get another 15 years out of it with only minor repairs.

Being a scrapper is a lifestyle of recycling and reusing, buying things used, and getting by as cheaply as possible. It just fits who I am I guess (a cheap bastard!) I am still offended when I find perfectly good stuff on the curb; I just can't believe how money has so little value to the average person.

When my city first started a recycling program, we went from one can to three. All the cans are same size, just different lids. Green lid for yard waste, grey lid all types of recyclable plastics, metals and glass. The black lid was for regular trash, there was no rate increase for trash service, but water and sewage went up 10%. The city owns the water and sewage system, even charges neighboring cities to connect to ours. The waste disposals is contracted out to the largest trash company in the nation, but the city does all of the billing. So one bill for water, sewage and trash. That first year a typical monthly bill was around $55 to $60 (water about $15, sewage $20 and trash $25). The second year the city added $10 for every home for additional street maintenance, citing state revenue sharing cutbacks and additional road maintenance needed due to more trash truck traffic (three cans/three trash trucks every week). Water/sewage rates no change, but trash doubled. So now monthly bill is $120. We have had modest rate increases over the next ten years. That bill that was once $60 a month is now $140 to $145. Guess who lobbied the state for mandatory trash recycling of all cities in the state of California. The nations largest trash company (one of largest political contributors in the state), wanted the most populous state to pay them more every month. That is how it went for homes, you should see the rates for commercial trash. That company has had the contract (monopoly) going on thirty five years now!

Want to know how to make billions of dollars? Hire a business consultant (lobbing firm) to entice the politicians to propose and support a needed by all "Environmental Law". Don't get me wrong, curbside recycling was needed and long over due in this state. But did so few, need to make so much money, all paid for by the rest of us? Always follow the money, who wants you to do what? and why?