Too_Many_Tools ha escrito:

In my opinon, it is a symptom of a larger problem....

Companies are setting up the situation that you are forced to buy new
versus repair the used applicance, car, electronics, computers, cell
phones....because they make a larger profit.
The MBAs that are crafting the company policy are behind this.
And the consumer is being left holding the bill...including paying for
the cost of disposal.

I dont think it is planned obsolescence per se,( as in a sort of
conspiracy to deliberately make things to expire at a given moment.)
it's more to do with capitalist economics. It saves companies money to
cut back on service and parts support, and with the constant search for
cheaper production we see a decline in build standards. This enables
the final retail price to be lowered, more volume of sales etc.
This has created a consumer culture of the 'throwaway product' .
Longevity is not high on the average consumer's list of priorities when
shopping. It's more to do with how cool a thing looks, and how it
complements their lifestyle. rather moronic in my opinion, but that
seems to be what many people believe, probably because they know no
better.
People pay less and value the product less. For all but the very high
end gear,( a minority niche in the market), the idea of repair for
things like TVs doesn't come into it for the majority of those sort of
products sold. All well and good, but it's ultimately the environment
which pays, and this unsustainable lifestyle of consumerism means we
have to start wars to get oil to keep on supporting this system (after
all where does all that plastic come from?) Not to mention
envirtonmental side effects from the millions of tons of waste
generated by this process which defy contemplation. And let's not
forget costly solutions to attempt to solve this problem. So I reckon
we should be asking about the *real* cost of these 'cheap' throwaway
items - consider the excessive use of raw materials, treatment of waste
etc etc. - and they're suddenly not so cheap after all!

Incidentally, there are some great pics of this phenomenon he
http://www.chrisjordan.com/

regards, -B.