Unplanned Obsolescence

continued

companies still have at least one typewriter because there are some forms that can't be done on a computer or to make labels," he says. "But their use is so infrequent now, you can go for five years without getting it serviced and two years without changing ribbons." Though someone brings in a typewriter about once a week, he can repair only about half of them, because "there's no replacement parts--we don't even have ribbons." It's so frustrating that Carson is reluctant to let people know he still works on typewriters--he spends most of his time now repairing computer printers.   

[Originally published in December, 2009.]