This could be the end of consumer electronic repair

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

I forgot to mention that this RCA was made in, you guessed it, CHINA!

There is the answer to your question, given the hourly rate of a good tech and what the assembly line people in China get paid it is cheaper to replace the whole set and probably not even worth the shipping charge to ship the old one back to China for repairs. What all this does to the landfills is another story.