Car problems, microcosm for society?

I've been having some minor vehicle problems as of late. My bike has a broken rad drain plug, a 6 dollar part with a 2 dollar gasket that is going to take four days to get here. This is excusable, as the machine's from 1984, and plastic parts only last so long. The real wake up call though is the issue my car is going through, which is even more minor, but an interesting story.

Many moons ago, I had the Ford dealership change a bunch of burnt lightbulbs for me when I had the car in for an oil change. Shameful, I know, as I frequently change my own oil, and lightbulbs are generally an even easier task, but chalk it up to the laziness that today's busy lifestyle can often provoke. I figured that if the car was going in, might as well pay 10 bucks to just have the work "done" for me. I could drive off, and not spend precious minutes trying to figure out how to get the different housings removed from the car. Fast forward a year to a few days ago. I happen to notice that one of my plate lamps is out. I shrug, as the parking lot at work is kind of rough, and figure vibration's just killed the bulb. Yesterday, I get around to removing the old bulb and notice that my problem isn't simply a burned bulb. It appears that the last time the bulb was changed, the plastic housing got cracked. This allowed water to get in the socket for the bulb, rusting the socket. I tried cleaning the corrosion off, but the prongs were very fragile, and one of them was rotten right through.

Still a nothing part, but here's the kicker...I go to Ford this morning, and the housing is 15 bucks or thereabouts. No problem. The socket is $56, and has to come in from the US, which will take a week or so. The amount of money for the socket made me raise an eyebrow, but the fact that it's going to take me longer to get a simple part for a fairly modern car, when an equally simple part for a 23 year old motorcycle can get here in four days, at far less the cost, is what really surprises me. The plate bulb is pretty standard, and in reality we're talking about a one inch wide bulb socket with two little electrical prongs in it, all the complexity of your dollar store flashlight. Now the cost is the way it is, and so is the time to get it here. I don't want to sound like a whiny kid, but it makes me pose a question about our disposable society.

Have we become so throw away that even the simplest things are expensive or hard to fix? Not just cars, but seemingly everything in our age is designed to make repairs difficult. No one repairs electronics anymore. If your TV or stereo dies, it's simply a matter of tossing it and getting a new one. Try to find a stereo repair shop anymore...a few people changing fuses, but no one with a service manual and the will to track down a problem. Even bigger items, that are traditionally fixed...small engines for example, are somewhat easier to replace than repair.

Not just our goods...but our lives to. Instead of therapy and hard work, most people divorce at the first sign in marriage and move on to the next vict....err lover. Children take a wrong turn, and parents give up on raising them, allowing them to be delinquent, leading to other troubles later in life. People spend no time trying to fix their careers if they get off track, instead preferring to blame the world for being cruel, heading to a shrink to get medicated and move on. We even have problems on national levels, countries not talking to each other, the same problems across the board.

Regardless as to why, it's a problem with our society that needs to be fixed. Too much is wasted, in so many ways. As a society, we need to work harder at maintaining friendships, along with our lives.