I wonder how many hair dryers get trashed every day?

I would have never bought this crappy hair dryer. I knew the minute it came home from the store that it wouldn't last, and now I'm kicking myself for not demanding its immediate return. It was just like the Story of Stuff. Only $20 AND the cord retracts!? What a steal! Blargh. You cannot have a retractable cord in a tiny, cheap, plastic appliance like this and expect it to last. I mean, the action of retraction is too abrupt and rather violent (for lack of a better term) for such a small appliance. Of course something came loose inside, and of course the thing stopped working LESS THAN A YEAR LATER.

I actually tried taking it apart to see if somehow I could magically develop some electrical engineering know-how and fix it. Aha! There's the rub. You cannot take it apart. I got this far and then couldn't get the main section apart because of the tricky way they manufactured it. THEY (THEY!!) DON'T WANT YOU TO FIX IT. (You should see the size of my soapbox.) So now it's in the garbage can. All of the metals and wires and waste, it absolutely kills me. I would gladly pay $100 for a hair dryer -- more even! -- if I knew it would last 10-15 years. (Hmm, it appears they do sell $100 hair dryers. I wonder...) It could be that the inherent concept of a hand-held hair dryer -- small, overheated, light-weight -- is just an impossible product to build to last. I don't know. I cannot imagine not using a hair dryer. I have been assimilated.

Wah.