[GTALUG] Ontario Bill 72: "Right to Repair"

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Don Tai via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
| 
| A different view from the fashion industry. Instead of making more throw
| away products, make less but better quality products. It seems very old
| school, and much less wasteful. Not quite the right to repair, but along
| the same philosophical line.
| 
| https://www.fastcompany.com/90311509/we-have-to-fix-fashion-if-we-want-to-survive-the-next-century

Interesting.  I think that some of this is exagerated but I'm on-side.

Just like electronics got radically cheaper (orders of magnitude) in
my lifetime, the cost of clothing has gotten radically cheaper in the
last three centuries.

I just read:
<https://www.economics.utoronto.ca/munro5/MedCloth04chapfourC.pdf>

The cost of a woollen broadcloth (about 27 meters long) in this period
(say 1500) was about the same as a master mason's annual wage.

The processes of building garments was complex and labour-intensive.
There are many steps that most people don't know.  Ever heard of
carding?  Fulling?  Mordants?

Clothes were inherited.

Worn-out linen was prized for making paper.  There was an occupation
"rag picker".  You can see paintings of rag pickers in the current
exhibition at the AGO "Impressionism in the Age of Industry: Monet,
Pissarro and more".

Prices started to go down (I think) with the introduction of machines
like the carding machines, spinning jenny, power looms, cotton gin,
etc.  Here's a timeline that I found after typing that:

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_clothing_and_textiles_technology>

This automation eliminated the "need" for slaves in cotton production.
If I remember correctly, picking the cotton and separating the staple
from the seeds was very labour-intensive.