We are currently living in a time where we
are exposed to many social media and advertisement of new and better products.
It creates desire to want the product and purchase it even sooner and frequent
than we need to. Sometimes we are forced to purchase new products as the
product was planned to fail in a given time. I thought i always knew that all
products are manufactured with a set expiry date it was quite shocking to see
it in the video how the printer has a chip deliberately placed inside to make
the fail. It was surprising and annoying at the same time to see at the end of
the video when the printer started running fine when he downloaded a free
software. It felt like we are being tricked by the manufacturer and forced to
dispose what we have purchased to replace it with a brand new one. We are the
victims of planned obsolescence and consumers are derived to purchase products
unwillingly.
It was interesting to study about how the
planned obsolescence began. I can understand why the planned obsolescence was
needed in the time of 1929 when the economy experienced deep recession and 1/4
men were unemployed and they were searching for work rather than the goods to
spend money on. Bernard London's suggestion of ending the depression through
the planned obsolescence by law was so that there is always a room for new
goods and therefore creating a job for people. He believed that planned obsolescence
will make people keep consuming, everyone would have a job and therefore reduce
the depression. The shortening the life of products to increase consumer
demands did work and lead the economy to grow but I do not agree with this idea.
His philosophy to reduce the depression was never put into action, but 20 years
later in the 1950s his idea resurfaced with a crucial twist. Instead of forcing
people to the planned obsolescence, they were to be seduced by it. It became
into action by the choice of consumers as the desire to purchase something more
and new increased by the influence of social media.
We are still facing this idea suggested in
the 1920s. Light bulbs that are designed to last 100,000 hours did not reach
the market and the standard hour of 25,000 dropped to 10,000 in less than 2
years. This means that if the light bulbs are sold at the same price, the
lightbulb company will be selling 100 times more when the lives are shortened
intentionally. The engineers were first instructed to design a long lasting
light bulb but when the goal was achieved, they are then ordered to shorten the
lifespan. This issue also existed in other forms of products such as the nylon
stockings made from Dupont and fridges manufactured with a limit of 25 years.
It is also evident in a movie when a young engineer who designed a everlasting
thread had found himself on the run being chased by the workers who are afraid
to lose their jobs. This shows that many people in the higher society who
controls the manufacturing of the goods are opposed to long lasting products.
It can be seen as that planned obsolescence
is actually crucial for the development of the economy and consumers are
purchasing new products on their own will and there are no one forcing consumers
to purchase the products, but this idea is definitely producing problems in the
long run. Electronic wastes are shipped to 3rd world countries such as Ghana. More
than 80% of the waste shipped to Ghana is unrepairable. It is illegal to ship wastes to 3rd world
countries, but they always have a way to get around. They claim the wastes as
second hand goods, but the reality is that the electronics simply do not work.
They are using special land of others as a trash bin. There are limit to
natural resources and limit to where all the wastes can be placed.
The market is always producing something new
and beautiful and people are being seduced to frequently repeated purchase.
This is unsustainable in the long run. We are focusing on our decision based on
what we can see now but we have to see the future and rethink before every
purchase.It will create problems to totally reduce the planned obsolescence and
high consumption but we definitely have to find a midpoint for the current and
the future. First thing we should do would be to be cautious about the planned
obsolescence
