This reminds me of a column in DIE ZEIT from 1999 on the subject of the planned obsolescence of light bulbs: "Is it actually true that light bulb manufacturers

This reminds me of a column in DIE ZEIT from 1999 on the subject of the planned obsolescence of light bulbs: "Is it actually true that light bulb manufacturers could have produced light bulbs with an almost unlimited life a long time ago, but don't want to in order to stay in business? Rainer Mauersberger, Tucson (USA) I don't want to speculate here about the motives of the light bulb manufacturers, but just want to list a few facts. 1. every light bulb (as it is correctly called) has a limited service life because tungsten atoms constantly evaporate from the filament and the wire breaks at some point. 2. how long the wire lasts can be "adjusted", for example by making it thicker or thinner. However, if you make it glow less brightly and thus increase its service life, the already poor efficiency drops even further - a standard light bulb only converts four percent of the electrical energy into light. 3) Since December 24, 1924, there has in fact been an international "light bulb cartel", which was essentially controlled by the companies General Electric (USA), Osram/Siemens (Germany) and Associated Electrical Industries (Great Britain). This cartel not only divided up the global markets among themselves, but also reached agreements on how long a light bulb should last - since the Second World War, this has been 1,000 hours. In the Soviet Union and Hungary, there have always been bulbs with a longer service life; the Chinese bulb still burns for 5000 hours today. 4) The inventor Dieter Binninger developed a light bulb with a considerably longer life expectancy, which he also patented. His three improvements: a new form of filament filament, a glass bulb filled with noble gas and a diode as a "dimmer". The Binninger bulb lasted 150,000 hours and consumed only around 50 percent more energy than an ordinary bulb for the same light output. Binninger produced the light bulbs himself, but then negotiated with the Treuhand to take over the GDR company Narva. Shortly after submitting his offer, the light bulb revolutionary crashed in a private plane in 1991. 5 Today, light bulbs are no longer manufactured in the new federal states. Light bulbs in the western world still have a life span of 1000 hours. Christoph Drösser Translated with DeepL.com (free version)" https://www.zeit.de/stimmts/1999/199933_stimmts_gluehbir https://www.zeit.de/stimmts/1999/199933_stimmts_gluehbir