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If you pay gold, you get junk

2025.09.04 03:10

강창오 조회 수:3734

“Why is the battery running out so fast?”

One day, I noticed that my iPhone battery was suddenly running out very fast. I kept charging it over and over again though it didn’t make any difference. Someone suggested I should change the battery or turn off Bluetooth when not in use. However hard I tried, nothing could stop it. I eventually visited an iPhone shop and asked a staff member about it. He said, frankly, it's a trend nowadays that the products are made with short life. That's why they are constantly producing new versions. It was obvious that his intention was to buy a new one, which sounded like a mandate. And I bought a new phone because my life is totally dependent on it, just like most people these-days. The price was alarmingly expensive; However, there was little choice.

Coincidentally, I had a car accident recently that smashed the front bumper of my car. I called an AA patrol and asked to take it to the garage for a repair. The AA man drove it around a bit before taking it away, and said it was OK apart from the damaged front end.

I was waiting to collect my car from the garage any day. A few days later, my insurance company rang me saying, “Your car’s been written off!” I was taken aback a bit and asked, why? “The car's chassis was partly damaged, and the cost of repairing it is more than the compensation amount for the vehicle". 

“Dear me. It is a car less than a year old. What a waste to discard the whole new car instead of repairing it, given that small damage!”, I felt very dejected.

Experiencing these two incidents related to modern technology was a learning curve. It reminded me of the proverb “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys".

But, it is turning into an old clichéd phrase as time passes. Therefore, I dared to rephrase it “If you pay gold, you get junk".

However, all the current worries about the deterioration of Earth's environment, caused by excessive resource use, are significant. What about all the Earth’s environment-friendly projects each country has been obliged to raise and achieve for more than a decade?

What is all this fuss about? It doesn’t add up. The unsustainable exploitation and waste of resources for technological advancement is self-defeating and ultimately will lead to sheer destruction. ‘Sheer lip service in a façade’!