I'm darned if I can find where he or any of us are "coerced" into making changes in the technology that we use to extend our reach. I'm quite pleased to find an ever widening array of better hammers within reach both physically and financially to make my life easier and more productive. I have a DAT recorder very similar to the one he described. It sits collecting dust much as his does. The reason is simple - a much easier and more flexible tool that made that recorder obsolete - at 10% of the cost. I'm sure it's possible, perhaps even common to make poorly thought out choices about technology purchases but then it's equally possible to make bad choices about can openers. I don't see any of those choices as being compulsory.
My TV won't work after February. I'm being "coerced" into getting another box to make it work. My excellent 1965 vintage short wave won't work if/when broadband over powerlines is implemented wide-scale. If our turntables die before converting to AIFF/MP3/AAC, it will be hard to replace them. But my Swing-Away can opener will work for at least another 30 years, unless cans are replaced by nonrecyclable brick paks.
We have a fairly good recycling program where I live in Maryland, but you have to take your stuff to recycle locations around the county yourself. Most haulers don't separate trash from recyclables. There are electronics recycling companies, but you also have to take/send old electronics yourself. Few will pick up.
Unfortunately, our economy is almost entirely dependent on buying stuff, even though we don't make much of it here. Now I'll get back to my 2000 vintage hacked Mac.
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