Posted on 01/08/2023 8:05:40 PM PST by anthropocene_x
The Great Depression changed the very nature of consumerism. The economy desperately needed stimulation — and consumer goods were one way to do it. It was around this period that advertising heavyweight Earnest Elmo Calkins laid out a selling strategy that came to define purchasing habits for the next century: “consumer engineering,” or how advertisers and designers could artificially create demand, often by making older objects seem undesirable.
Fast-forward a handful of decades, and now several generations of people are conditioned to buy the new thing and to keep replacing it. Companies, in turn, amp up production accordingly. It’s less so that objects are intended to break (functional planned obsolescence) but rather that consumer mindsets are oriented around finding the better object. But “better” doesn’t always mean long-lasting when companies are incentivized to produce faster and faster and faster.
For years, Apple opposed right-to-repair laws, claiming they would expose company secrets. Because their screws are proprietary, you need special equipment to open up a device. This meant swinging by the dreaded Genius Bar or an authorized third-party shop to fix a broken screen until 2021, when Apple announced it would finally sell the parts required to open (and therefore fix) a device following years of activism from folks like Gordon-Byrne and pressure from regulators. Apple’s products still remain some of the toughest to repair on your own, according to iFixit, but the company is not alone in opposing right-to-repair; Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Tesla, John Deere, and General Electric have all spent billions lobbying against right-to-repair laws.
(Excerpt) Read more at vox.com ...
The washing machine water levels are a joke.
The idiots who passed those regulations clearly did not stop to think that consumers would simply do more smaller loads of laundry, thus not saving any water at all.
And some areas of the country do not need federally regulated water saving devices. If water were scarce and expensive, we would buy water saving ones.
Around the Great Lakes and here in New England, we have plenty of water. Personally our well produces more than enough. We don’t need water saving devices.
I never found Macy’s that impressive. I was not impressed with their quality when I looked at their construction, and considered them way over priced.
I blame the lack of competition for it
They also fail because Apple intentionally sabotages the battery life monitor in older phones when the OS is upgraded past a certain point.
And automakers are infamous for planned obsolescence, from using plastic components in high wear and temperature cycle areas to flat out inadequate designs and catastrophic paint failure. However, they shot themselves in the foot so often with mass failures under warranty and recalls that cars have vastly improved in terms of reliability.
Even Land’s End has dropped significantly in quality in the past 20-30 years.
We have few of their older clothing items that wore like iron. Now their turtle necks and t-shirts and long sleeve t’s are thin and silky feeling, not the heavier and more robust fabric I prefer.
Their men’s twills just fade and wear out faster.
When Land’s End sold out to Sears many years ago, that was the beginning of the end of their quality. It took a few years, but we did notice a change in the losing of the small details that made things like their socks and men’s dress shirts so much better.
Indeed. I finally realized how easy it was to repair an iMac after I was given one with the screen already removed.
Everyone scared me off from opening one because we have to ‘removed the glass’ with ‘special tools’
Rubbish.
Glass is held in with magnets. The suction cups just make it easy.
The replacing the hard drive was drop dead easy…. (Computer guy at work had given up on it. Took me ‘five minutes’.
I spoke to the guy in Washington who headed the washer department at the EPA. Leftist horrorshow.
I agree.
I think our water conservation washing machines are partly to blame.
Those machines literally beat the life out of your clothing.
I have completely given up on clothing stores.
95% of their merchandise is crap I will never buy.
The other 5% doesn't fit.
You are so correct.
The second transmission is going into a Subaru in my building. Under 55k miles. Local guy explained that cafe standards are requiring cars to overuse their transmissions and constantly
shift to maintain speed. Also same Subaru needed new brakes at 40k. Explained. Cars have to be lighter so parts are thinner and wear out much faster.
Manufacturers need to meet standards and shift costs to consumers.
Witness dishwashers. Watersaving. One has to run hot water before starting and keep home hot water temperature high to have effective wash. God knows what chemicals are left on dishes with the reused water.
The wealthy purchase commercial equipment which are exempt from the standards. But not many middle class can pay 3 or 6k for a dishwasher.
Vance Packard had several books about planned obsolescence that were quite popular in the 60s and seventies. They apply today. Only EPA and government induced anti engineering.
In clothing as with healthcare and everything else... third world standards are here .
You are so correct.
The second transmission is going into a Subaru in my building. Under 55k miles. Local guy explained that cafe standards are requiring cars to overuse their transmissions and constantly
shift to maintain speed. Also same Subaru needed new brakes at 40k. Explained. Cars have to be lighter so parts are thinner and wear out much faster.
Manufacturers need to meet standards and shift costs to consumers.
Witness dishwashers. Watersaving. One has to run hot water before starting and keep home hot water temperature high to have effective wash. God knows what chemicals are left on dishes with the reused water.
The wealthy purchase commercial equipment which are exempt from the standards. But not many middle class can pay 3 or 6k for a dishwasher.
Vance Packard had several books about planned obsolescence that were quite popular in the 60s and seventies. They apply today. Only EPA and government induced anti engineering.
In clothing as with healthcare and everything else... third world standards are here .
Vance Packard started the consumer protection movement imho. Not Nader.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vance_Packard
It’s unfathomable that a refrigerator made today would last 52 years, they aren’t designed to last like that now.
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I have a Kenmore that I bought 10 years ago and this past summer, it stopped working. A bit of troubleshooting told me that it needed a new starter kit so I went to a parts supplier to buy it... in the end, it seems they are having problems getting the parts and fortunately, I have a second fridge and a couple of freezers so waiting for parts wasn’t a critical issue. During the last round of discussions about “where are these parts?”, I suggested just how stupid it was to throw out a fridge for the sake of something as trivial as a starter kit but it appears I might have to do that. The lady at the parts supply place was horrified that I might have to do that as she said “I really hope you don’t have to do that.... the new fridges don’t seem to last even 5 years!”
The one thing that bothers me is built in batteries.
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Totally agree... and my hot button with that topic is smoke alarms. The ones with built in batteries are supposed to last for 10 years but none seem to make it past 2. As for the ones with replaceable batteries, for a time they weren’t even on the shelf although it seems that there were at least some the last time I was in a hardware store.
Vance Packard had a big influence on me and the “Hidden Persuaders” probably contributed largely to my lifelong avoidance and condemnation of television.
It wasn’t so long ago that people really knew how to keep their things running.
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It’s not just the fact that folks haven’t got a clue about how things work (which is at least understandable given the fact the products are now dominated by what goes on in their computer boards), it’s the fact that people are subjected to endless fearmongering by the suppliers for even thinking about investigating problems on their own. Ever have a problem with furnace? I don’t know how many times I’ve heard “don’t even think of touching that!”..... sheesh there is enough fearmongering going on that there are people out there who are afraid to do even mundane things like change their filters.
Made to sell, not to work.
Simple: repairs are a profit center. At one point in time it became obvious that you could make more money in repairs than on the product, look at the auto industry.
The problem is that this is a poorer product for consumers. And it comes to a head often as someone (a farmer) needs the product to function immediately to perhaps farm a crop and can’t wait two weeks to get a tractor in the shop for one and then pay a fortune for a simple repair.
How about those old metal desks, a thing of beauty.
Because we import sh!t from China and elsewhere.
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That poses the national question....
“How do you change the process”?
Sounds like my husband.
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