tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413935813892441553.post6725873765227751956..comments2024-03-29T00:30:39.262-05:00Comments on real economics: Labor Day thoughts on an earnest young ProducerJonathan Larsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05217670446743983955noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413935813892441553.post-85769700988914293202013-09-05T00:49:57.566-05:002013-09-05T00:49:57.566-05:00I love old gear, but from a practical point of vie...I love old gear, but from a practical point of view I spend more time working on it than I spend using it. For people whose time actually is more valuable than the equipment they're using, it makes sense to buy new(er) equipment that's not so maintenance-hungry. I drive a 2012 Jeep Wrangler rather than a 1978 Jeep CJ-7, for example, because I just don't have *time* to spend on keeping the CJ-7 road-worthy, something's always breaking and needing welding back together or needing replacing on the old dears. They're easily field-repairable, unlike my new Wrangler, but my new Wrangler doesn't break, period, and has a 5 year 100,000 mile warranty on the powertrain (the expensive part of the beast). For the next four or five years all I'm going to have to do to maintain it is change the oil regularly and put gas in it. No replacing all the brake lines because of corrosion (for the hard lines) or rot (for the rubber lines). No time spent re-wiring it after it catches on fire because 40 year old wiring chaffed through finally. No need to re-bush the carburetor because it's leaking air around the throttle shaft and thus leaning out the mixture too much at idle, making it run terrible. No taking the heads to a machine shop to be rebuilt because it's started leaking oil through the valve guides due to them simply being worn out. It's all easy and simple to work on, unlike my 2012 Jeep, but it just takes *time* and time is in short supply for me (and my time is quite valuable -- my rates are over $75/hour). <br /><br />So in the end it's all about that tradeoff between time and money. If you have more time than money, or simply want to spend a lot of time on it as a hobby, the used gear is what you want to do. If you have more money than time...<br />BadTuxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01345749557330760251noreply@blogger.com