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A comment on Sweden Wants to Fight Disposable Culture with Tax Breaks for Repairing Old Stuff. Parent comment

Re:Sweden Wants to Fight Disposable Culture with Tax Breaks ... by brianwawok on Monday September 26, 2016 @04:52PM (#12585442)
I think you skipped all my points on safety advances, that there is no way could have been future proofed for. Using a 20 year old windows api is different in that it doesn't put your life in danger. A 20 year old crumple zone and 20 year old airbag technology DOES increase your risk of death.
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Re:Sweden Wants to Fight Disposable Culture with Tax Breaks ... by logfromblammo on Monday September 26, 2016 @06:04PM (#12585998)
It is up to the consumer whether it would be better to spend their limited budget on upgrading an older car where safety retrofitting is not possible, or on migrating to a newer car.

You can't have a standard for a technology that doesn't exist yet. But anything that does have a standard can likely be repaired and upgraded more cheaply in the future. It preserves more of the value in the used cars.

If someone really needs those side-curtain air bags, they would be able to trade in their old vehicle, at a higher price, to someone who doesn't value safety features as highly, and use the proceeds to help pay for a newer vehicle with more of those features.

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