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All modern corporations do this. It's called planned obsolescence and it is NOT a conspiracy theory. It's a well established standard operating practice for the

All modern corporations do this. It's called planned obsolescence and it is NOT a conspiracy theory. It's a well established standard operating practice for the majority of companies with manufactured, mass marketed goods. Planned obsolescence occurs when barriers to entry are so high that the remaining players in the market, with a wink and a nod, form a subtle cartel. These cloak and dagger cartels of course raise prices, but they also increase failure rates to extract rent. This is the dark side of capitalism and what happens when capital concentrates in the hands of a small plutocracy. The health of capitalism is completely dependent on decentralized wealth. As soon as wealth starts to concentrate, oligopolies and cartels form and they put a brake on innovation in favor of rent seeking. There's a documentary on this called "The Lightbulb Conspiracy" which is worth watching.

jseliger 14y ago
>It's a well established standard operating practice for the majority of companies with manufactured, mass marketed goods. As Wikipedia and XKCD (http://xkcd.com/285/ http://xkcd.com/285/) say, [[Citation needed]]. A documentary of unknown provenance doesn't cut it: show me a book or website with an actual bibliography.
- forensic 14y ago
  You realize that XKCD is mocking people who do that, right? It's completely ridiculous to ask for citations in the context of a speech and only an idiot would do that. In the context of writing, it is certainly appropriate to cite sources. Which is precisely why I cited my source. In turn, the source I cited, cites other sources in addition to doing investigative journalism and speaking to credentialed experts, who in their turn cite their sources. As a writer, it is not my job to prove the veracity of my sources. That is the job of the reader. My job is to cite them; it is the reader's job to determine the "provenance" of my sources if they think provenance is the most important thing here (it's emphatically not). If you're stuck up on provenance, you could have googled and discovered that the provenance of this is Arte France, a French-German TV producer, which in turn is owned by Arte Group, a French-German media corporation. They are relatively small players--Wikipedia reports they have about a 1% audience share. Having said all that, in any good research the least important question is provenance. The most important question is research methods and findings. If you were to do your due diligence as a reader, and actually check the citation in question which is your duty as the reader, you would find out that their research methods are disgustingly rigorous and beyond any reasonable doubt. Their research is of the extremely boring variety that unearths extremely obvious facts. They also speak to credentialed, published experts to put these facts in context. In conclusion, your objection is completely without merit, you have failed to engage in good faith, you have failed to do your due diligence that is your duty as a critic. In academia, it falls to the reader to follow up citations. An academic who would criticize the sources of another academic without actually checking those sources would be laughed out of the room. In this way, I too laugh at you.
kiba 14y ago
The flip side of reliability is less innovation and less of other qualities such as fuel efficiency and so forth. So, it's not a dark side, because corporations are economizing in accordance to a variety of factors.
- forensic 14y ago
  > because corporations are economizing in accordance to a variety of factors. Except, they're not. Planned obsolescence is not about economizing for other factors, it is about rent seeking. You seem to be dismissing the findings of this research without even understanding it. The entire point is that this research has demonstrated that the planned obsolescence in question is has to do with cartel formation and rent seeking rather than striving for a competitive edge in a competitive market. This rent seeking only happens in non-competitive, oligopolistic or monopolistic markets. Cartel formation and operation is a well understood economic phenomenon. You seem to be doubting it based on some kind of faith in the free market, some kind of faith in the infallibility of markets. Adam Smith would have strong words against this kind of naive market-worship.
mseebach 14y ago
There's a distinction between carefully engineering something to be as cheap as possible, but still lasting for the full length of the warranty, or actively adding a feature to make something that would otherwise last for a lot longer break after the end of the warranty. The former is just good engineering, the latter is bad.

jseliger 14y ago

>It's a well established standard operating practice for the majority of companies with manufactured, mass marketed goods. As Wikipedia and XKCD (http://xkcd.com/285/ http://xkcd.com/285/) say, [[Citation needed]]. A documentary of unknown provenance doesn't cut it: show me a book or website with an actual bibliography.

forensic 14y ago
You realize that XKCD is mocking people who do that, right? It's completely ridiculous to ask for citations in the context of a speech and only an idiot would do that. In the context of writing, it is certainly appropriate to cite sources. Which is precisely why I cited my source. In turn, the source I cited, cites other sources in addition to doing investigative journalism and speaking to credentialed experts, who in their turn cite their sources. As a writer, it is not my job to prove the veracity of my sources. That is the job of the reader. My job is to cite them; it is the reader's job to determine the "provenance" of my sources if they think provenance is the most important thing here (it's emphatically not). If you're stuck up on provenance, you could have googled and discovered that the provenance of this is Arte France, a French-German TV producer, which in turn is owned by Arte Group, a French-German media corporation. They are relatively small players--Wikipedia reports they have about a 1% audience share. Having said all that, in any good research the least important question is provenance. The most important question is research methods and findings. If you were to do your due diligence as a reader, and actually check the citation in question which is your duty as the reader, you would find out that their research methods are disgustingly rigorous and beyond any reasonable doubt. Their research is of the extremely boring variety that unearths extremely obvious facts. They also speak to credentialed, published experts to put these facts in context. In conclusion, your objection is completely without merit, you have failed to engage in good faith, you have failed to do your due diligence that is your duty as a critic. In academia, it falls to the reader to follow up citations. An academic who would criticize the sources of another academic without actually checking those sources would be laughed out of the room. In this way, I too laugh at you.

kiba 14y ago

The flip side of reliability is less innovation and less of other qualities such as fuel efficiency and so forth. So, it's not a dark side, because corporations are economizing in accordance to a variety of factors.

forensic 14y ago
> because corporations are economizing in accordance to a variety of factors. Except, they're not. Planned obsolescence is not about economizing for other factors, it is about rent seeking. You seem to be dismissing the findings of this research without even understanding it. The entire point is that this research has demonstrated that the planned obsolescence in question is has to do with cartel formation and rent seeking rather than striving for a competitive edge in a competitive market. This rent seeking only happens in non-competitive, oligopolistic or monopolistic markets. Cartel formation and operation is a well understood economic phenomenon. You seem to be doubting it based on some kind of faith in the free market, some kind of faith in the infallibility of markets. Adam Smith would have strong words against this kind of naive market-worship.

mseebach 14y ago

There's a distinction between carefully engineering something to be as cheap as possible, but still lasting for the full length of the warranty, or actively adding a feature to make something that would otherwise last for a lot longer break after the end of the warranty. The former is just good engineering, the latter is bad.