Alabama Armpit

So it's pushing 100 degrees outside, it feels like an armpit, and of course our air conditioning went out today. I don't care, though. My goal is to not let affect me, since probably the majority of the world (including my friend Jeremy), is without central air anyways. This seems to happen every year, which leads to the question of the day: Is it impossible to permanently repair an air unit? Or are the a/c repairmen doing only enough to keep the air working for a while, so we will call them again when it breaks down and give them hundreds of dollars to get the air going again?