THE RIGHT TO REPAIR IS IN OUR BLOOD - Americans Are Repair People
When I was a kid my Dad taught me how to fix things. We fixed things around the house, we fixed the car, we fixed the roof (in the middle of a very hot summer), we fixed the lawnmower but when the TV broke we both carried it down to the car and took it to a local repair shop. Repair was in our blood but when it was above our pay grade we took it to a repair shop for a professional to work on.
Boy howdy did I love to tinker with things when I was a kid! Radios, tape decks, boomboxes and anything that had screws to be unscrewed. One time my parents bought me a brand new ten-speed bike, which I promptly took apart and repainted. Repair was in my blood!
Our family was a typical middle class family in America enjoying what life offered us but respecting the fact that we needed to take care of the things we owned. Money was something we didn't just throw around. When my Mom wanted new chairs for the dinning room because they were wobbly and worn out. Dad broke out the wood glue and Mom went to the fabric store (25+ years later and we still sit on those chairs at Thanksgiving every year).
Like most Americans repair was in our blood!
As it is for many folks, next to our house, our cars were our most prized personal possessions. I fondly remember that my Dad would ALWAYS take our cars to Sung's Auto Care, a local mechanic who had immigrated to our country from war torn Korea. He worked on our family cars for decades at a price that our family could afford (except for oil changes, which my Dad proudly took to be done at the local high school - it was cheaper).
Auto repair, I've learned dates back to the late 1800's when only the rich in Europe could really afford a car. Their drivers (think Tom Branson the chauffeur in Downton Abbey) had to get creative to repair these early automobiles so they built a website called iFixThat and... No, no, no they worked closely with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in London to...
NOPE, these working class dudes (sorry ladies) worked together to find solutions, source parts and fix their bosses expensive automobiles. As a result it advanced a whole new industry and opened a new career field for lower class workers.
Soon after that bicycle mechanics J. Frank and Charles Duryea of Springfield, Massachusetts, designed the first successful American gasoline automobile in 1893, then some dude named Henry Ford standardized production in his goal to provide a car for the common man/woman. This standardization also revolutionized the auto repair business, which became easier to learn which opened up bigger career opportunities for repair people who had it in their blood.
Ford never intended for his product to be under his end-to-end control. He knew that by lifting up others he would benefit and the world would be a better place for it. And get this, during his early teens Henry Ford developed a reputation as a watch repairman after his father gifted one to him. So I have a strong feeling that repairability was ALWAYS on his mind as he became one of the richest men of his time and one of the worlds greatest innovators! Repair was in his blood!
Today, just over a hundred years later, the auto care industry is a $392 billion industry which has created almost 750,000 auto mechanic jobs in the US as it continues to grow. Repair provides jobs! Repair helps us all! Repair is in our blood!
A lot actually! Consider this, right now there are approximately 280 million cars and trucks on the road in the US and the average car is 11.8 years old thanks to independent repair. "Competition makes a better world for the consumer", says Aaron Lowe of the Auto Care Association. An industry association that fights for independent auto repair by invoking the motto, "Independence Drives Us" (love it!).
Yea, I heard ya. So here's what I got for you: 273 million smartphones are in the market today - that doesn't include the millions of tablets, feature phones and drones (which are included in the tech repair industry). That makes for somewhere in the neighborhood of over 300 million devices, many of which get broken each and every day.
Similar numbers here between cars (280 million) and smartphones (273 million) So let's just say that the Tech Repair Industry is a tenth of the $392 billion auto care industry (because hard numbers are almost impossible to come by). Maybe you average car repair is $1,000 a year where your average smartphone repair might be $100 a year. That would make the tech repair industry an almost $40 billion industry! For tens of thousands Tech Repair is in our blood!!
Here's the scary part as the cars rolled off of Henry Ford's assembly line in the early 1900's the auto repair industry grew right along with it. Creating jobs and providing consumers with an affordable way to repair the technology of the day. The growth of this repair business benefited the people on each side of the tracks as the automobile revolutionized our country and our standing in the world.
Not so much today!
Apple, as the main one, and other OEM's to some degree don't want independent repair. Apple has NEVER allowed it's parts and/or brand to be associated with independent repair in any way sort or fashion. Despite the fact that tens of thousands of small business people across our country have tried to pull themselves up by opening repair shops or offering repair services across this great country of ours.
Boy howdy did I love to tinker with things when I was a kid! Radios, tape decks, boomboxes and anything that had screws to be unscrewed. One time my parents bought me a brand new ten-speed bike, which I promptly took apart and repainted. Repair was in my blood!
Our family was a typical middle class family in America enjoying what life offered us but respecting the fact that we needed to take care of the things we owned. Money was something we didn't just throw around. When my Mom wanted new chairs for the dinning room because they were wobbly and worn out. Dad broke out the wood glue and Mom went to the fabric store (25+ years later and we still sit on those chairs at Thanksgiving every year).
Like most Americans repair was in our blood!
AUTOMOBILE REPAIR
Auto repair, I've learned dates back to the late 1800's when only the rich in Europe could really afford a car. Their drivers (think Tom Branson the chauffeur in Downton Abbey) had to get creative to repair these early automobiles so they built a website called iFixThat and... No, no, no they worked closely with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in London to...
NOPE, these working class dudes (sorry ladies) worked together to find solutions, source parts and fix their bosses expensive automobiles. As a result it advanced a whole new industry and opened a new career field for lower class workers.
Soon after that bicycle mechanics J. Frank and Charles Duryea of Springfield, Massachusetts, designed the first successful American gasoline automobile in 1893, then some dude named Henry Ford standardized production in his goal to provide a car for the common man/woman. This standardization also revolutionized the auto repair business, which became easier to learn which opened up bigger career opportunities for repair people who had it in their blood.
Ford never intended for his product to be under his end-to-end control. He knew that by lifting up others he would benefit and the world would be a better place for it. And get this, during his early teens Henry Ford developed a reputation as a watch repairman after his father gifted one to him. So I have a strong feeling that repairability was ALWAYS on his mind as he became one of the richest men of his time and one of the worlds greatest innovators! Repair was in his blood!Today, just over a hundred years later, the auto care industry is a $392 billion industry which has created almost 750,000 auto mechanic jobs in the US as it continues to grow. Repair provides jobs! Repair helps us all! Repair is in our blood!
Again with the history stuff WiGoMan?
What does auto repair have to do with Tech Repair?
A lot actually! Consider this, right now there are approximately 280 million cars and trucks on the road in the US and the average car is 11.8 years old thanks to independent repair. "Competition makes a better world for the consumer", says Aaron Lowe of the Auto Care Association. An industry association that fights for independent auto repair by invoking the motto, "Independence Drives Us" (love it!).
But we asked about Tech Repair!!
Yea, I heard ya. So here's what I got for you: 273 million smartphones are in the market today - that doesn't include the millions of tablets, feature phones and drones (which are included in the tech repair industry). That makes for somewhere in the neighborhood of over 300 million devices, many of which get broken each and every day.
Similar numbers here between cars (280 million) and smartphones (273 million) So let's just say that the Tech Repair Industry is a tenth of the $392 billion auto care industry (because hard numbers are almost impossible to come by). Maybe you average car repair is $1,000 a year where your average smartphone repair might be $100 a year. That would make the tech repair industry an almost $40 billion industry! For tens of thousands Tech Repair is in our blood!!
Not so much today!
Apple, as the main one, and other OEM's to some degree don't want independent repair. Apple has NEVER allowed it's parts and/or brand to be associated with independent repair in any way sort or fashion. Despite the fact that tens of thousands of small business people across our country have tried to pull themselves up by opening repair shops or offering repair services across this great country of ours.
For tech repair people it's simple,
Apple wants our blood!
Right to Repair isn't about government regulation of business! It's about providing a fair open playing field for ALL BUSINESSES!
Thanks for the read!
Be sure to comment and please follow me here on the WiGoMan blog and on twitter @RobBobLink
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