Built in Obsolescence

            Today I shall say a few word on built in obsolescence. This is something in our current world that is both very important, and extremely horrendous. It is the idea of making products with the express intent that they will only last for a certain amount of time before needing to be replaced.

            A first look at this process (which is used in a great many industries) at first glance looks like a money grab – and it is, to a certain extent. If you build something that lasts forever and sell it to them, you sell one item. On the other hand, if you build something that lasts for 5 years and sell it to someone, they keep coming back every 5 years for a new one.

            It’s a type of job security, for everyone from retail to manufacturing to design. It fuels the economy by ensuring that within our materialistic society people just keep buying more and more things. It sounds horrible – and it is – but there’s a flip side to it: progress.

            Putting an expiry date on items that otherwise need not expire allows for constant work towards improving products. If there wasn’t such a constant turnover of people buying more smart phones, how fast would improvements to them be developed? Not very fast, because there would be far less demand and there wouldn’t be money to pay the researchers.

            So, it’s not all bad, from a certain point of view. In fact, it’s necessary for how our society functions. It makes more jobs, and keeps people with the latest technology. On the other hand, it is extremely inefficient and wasteful. It’s a bit of a conundrum, and not one that’s easy to fix.

            Where is the balance between continuing to improve products and keeping people in jobs, and less waste accompanied by people not needing to spend so much money? There must be a way, but whatever it is will be hard for us to find. The way things work right now are so ingrained in our society that it’s hard to imagine another way.

            We need to view the problem from the outside – and probably completely restructure our society.

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If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.