We're a throw-away society!

This past weekend our cordless telephones started losing power after only a few minutes of use. With the units being more than five years old, we assumed the batteries were weakening and not holding a charge.

So, the logical action, or so we thought, was to buy new batteries for the units. After buying what we thought were the correct rechargeable batteries and then returning them when the connection from the battery to the phone wouldn't fit, we went to the Internet to search.

What did we find? That two batteries cost about $60 while two new cordless phones with all the bells and whistles we wanted and had on the existing units cost $47.

How can that be? How can two new phones cost less than the batteries that are inside the phones?

But then isn't that the case far too often,

Next, I went this weekend to buy a rubberized strap for my Casio solar-powered, radio beam-set wristwatch and discovered the watch, which is only a few years old, isn't made anymore. Thus the strap, which is part of the watch body, isn't made anymore.

So once again a new watch had to be purchased instead of buying a strap.

Next it was the black ink cartridge in my home computer printer that went dry, even though the diagnostics said it had ink. Once again buying a new ink cartridge was nearly as expensive as buying a new printer. Again, how can that be?

Oh yes, we are a throw-away society!