Right to Repair

It's not only farmers who are steamed over 'right to repair'

Farmers' frustration over their inability to repair their own equipment is front and center in a debate that spreads well beyond the farm, reports the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The battle is over who really controls a tractor, car, phone, refrigerator or camera, and whether customers have the freedom to repair the machines they own when they break as they see fit. Opponents of the movement known as "right to repair" are planning a $500,000 for ad campaign in Massachusetts to oppose a ballot question that would increase access to vehicles' digital data, reports the Boston Herald. The Nebraska Farm Bureau, meanwhile, has promised to support right-to-repair legislation if it can't reach an agreement with equipment manufacturers and dealers to provide access to software, parts and tools that would allow farmers to fix their own equipment, reports NETNebraska.

The question is wrong. Instead of asking, who really controls a tractor, car, phone, refrigerator or camera, I think the question is who really is best-equipped to repair a tractor, car, phone, refrigerator or camera when it no longer works as intended? I don't know the right answer on this issue, but I think if the right question was being asked, we'd all be closer to a solution.