Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.07-144241/https://www.theverge.com/tech/639126/india-frankenstein-laptops
In a dimly lit, cluttered workshop in Delhi’s Nehru Place, the air hums with the sound of whirring drills and the crackle of soldering irons. Sushil Prasad, a 35-year-old technician, wipes the sweat off his brow as he carefully pieces together the guts of an old laptop. It is a daily ritual — resurrecting machines by stitching together motherboards, screens, and batteries scavenged from other trashed older laptops and e-waste — to create functional, low-cost devices.
“India has always had a repair culture … but companies are pushing planned obsolescence”
“Right now, there is a huge demand for such ‘hybrid’ laptops,” Prasad says, his hands swapping out a damaged motherboard. “Most people don’t care about having the latest model; they just want something that works and won’t break the bank.”
they aren’t killing themselves, the system of exploitation is. please stop shifting the blame to some of the poorest people on earth who can choose between shitty jobs like this and starving
Alternatively: nobody can actually force anyone to do anything, as in moving their arms and body for them, everyone chooses whether to starve, work at a suicide job, or rebel. Shifting blame for someone’s actions, or inaction, to an abstract “system”, is an easy excuse to justify people’s inaction regarding said system.
TIL starvation is a choice. you are disgusting