Can Sweden tackle the throwaway society?
I like the idea in principle, but the cost of repairing something is so huge - due to direct labour costs and related social expenditures - that it is very difficult to change this balance with just VAT rate adjustments.<p>Fixing a five-year-old TV might cost 200$ (but you don&#x27;t know, there&#x27;s no guarantee). A new TV costs 300$. Now, if you reduce the VAT for fixing work from 25% to 12 %, the repair cost goes down to 180$.<p>Is that big enough difference to change the way people act? Mostly not. We still realise that the fixed TV might break at another point next week, and there is no warranty. If I just throw away the old thing and buy a new TV, it&#x27;ll have 6 or 12 month warranty and 2 year defect liability. So it&#x27;s still a better buy to get a new one.<p>Plus the new TV probably has more features than the old one.