planned obsolescence


jts

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Question:

Would planned obsolescence happen in a completely laissez faire, capitalist, Objectivist world? Why? Why not?

I think probably not. There would be more competition; competition would be more aggressive (cartels would be broken); customers would be more savvy; producers would be more respectful of customers; producers would be more self-respecting; planned obsolescence would be exposed more by journalists and experts.

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As for the specific case, it was always possible to create your own boutique lightbulb with a longer life. I remember them advertised in quack magazines like Popular Science back in the 1960s. Why did the cartel not lower the life of a bulb to 10 seconds? No one would buy them. They figured (correctly, it seems) that 1000 hours was the minimum acceptable to the mass market. If they failed to meet that, people would have done something else. In other words, competition would have sprung up.

10,000 hour light bulbs have been a regular use item for many commercial buildings to reduce labor costs in bulb changes. Building owners know that changing a bulb less often means greater savings on labor and the hassle of renting expensive equipment for high places. Home owners can now get the benefit of a longer life light bulb. These are rated at 10,000 hours which means they'll last about 13 times longer than the average retail store bulb. Long life light bulbs come in many wattages and have a clear or frosted finish which eliminated filament support shadows when lit. These 10,000 hour light bulbs also are known as a vibration service or rough service variety as they withstand machine vibration or simply the slamming door in a home. The A19 size is the exact size of a standard household light bulb. -- http://www.buylightfixtures.com/10000-hour-light-bulbs.aspx

But don't believe them if you don't want to.

10,000 & 20,000 Hour Incandescent Light Bulbs -- http://www.lightbulbsdirect.com/page/001/CTGY/IncanLL

Of course, the problem with cartels, is that it is soon in someone's interest to quit it:

Philips' SlimStyle light bulb, pictured, promises a comparable brightness to a 60W bulb instantly

Fumbling around in the dark to replace a lightbulb could soon become a thing of the past – or at least a task you only have to carry out every quarter of a century or so.

A new flat lightbulb, the world’s first of its kind to go on sale, has been launched by Philips.

The company promises its SlimStyle LED bulb is more efficient, less likely to break than other bulbs and will last for 23 years.

The bulb has a round shape to the front but is flat when viewed from the side so it is less three-dimensional than we’re used to.

It is covered in rubber and has LED lights arranged in a horseshoe shape on the inside.

The Dutch electronics manufacturer said it lasts 25 times longer than a traditional 60W incandescent bulb but has a similar output.

- See more at: http://www.georgianewsday.com/news/regional/203153-first-flat-lightbulb-that-lasts-23-years-is-as-bright-as-a-traditional-60w-one-and-will-save-you-80.html#sthash.q52xS1jw.dpuf

I agree that "planned obsolescence" is inherent in capitalism. Another word for it is "progress" - something better will come along. It is one reason why American manufacturers never cared about "quality" the way the Japanese did. For the Japanese craftsman, life was never going to get better, so he put all of himself into each work because the moment lasts forever and forever is but a moment.

For the American, the phrase "state of the art" implies impermanence: tomorrow, the art will have a new state.

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"If you make a solder for a piece of electronics from pure tin then that solder will, over time, grow those whiskers. They look like exactly what they sound like: a long hair or filament of pure tin grows out of the solder itself. Clearly and obviously, given the ease with which tin conducts electricity, this isn’t really something you want happening on a motherboard or inside a piece of electronics. For when the whisker grows long enough it will short out that piece of electronics. And yes, this does happen and the mean time before failure (MTBF) of a board built with a pure tin solder is some 3 to 4 years.

"Now, we do know how to solve this: we add lead to the tin to make the solder. But what has happened in the past few years? Correct, led by the European Union, who banned the use of lead solders in consumer electronics, the world now uses pure tin solders. So by deliberate design we’ve had the entire consumer electronics industry building boards and devices with that planned obsolescence. There are those of us who did warn about this before the law was passed but sadly we weren’t taken note of. And it really is true too: one major reason why consumer electronics now has a shorter working lifetime than it could do is simply that the law says it must be so.

"There is planned obsolescence in consumer electronics these days it’s just not been planned by the consumer electronics companies. You can thank the green and environmentalists activists instead."

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/10/31/certainly-theres-planned-obsolescence-in-apples-ikit-its-just-not-planned-by-apple/

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Planned obsolescence can be honest or dishonest.

An example of honest PO might be making a computer that will quit in ten years. Why use more expensive materials/components that make the product more expensive when it will become hopelessly out of date long before it quits? Why not give the customer a better price?

An example of what I call dishonest PO is this from wiki:

Planned obsolescence is sometimes achieved by placing a heat-sensitive component adjacent to a component that is expected to get hot. A common example is LCD screens with heat-sensitive electrolytic capacitors placed next to power components which may be 100 °C or hotter; this heat greatly reduces the lifespan of the electrolytic capacitor.[7]

That does not give the customer a better deal. The designer who designed that had no self respect.

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Planned obsolescence can be honest or dishonest.

An example of honest PO might be making a computer that will quit in ten years. Why use more expensive materials/components that make the product more expensive when it will become hopelessly out of date long before it quits? Why not give the customer a better price?

An example of what I call dishonest PO is this from wiki:

Planned obsolescence is sometimes achieved by placing a heat-sensitive component adjacent to a component that is expected to get hot. A common example is LCD screens with heat-sensitive electrolytic capacitors placed next to power components which may be 100 °C or hotter; this heat greatly reduces the lifespan of the electrolytic capacitor.[7]

That does not give the customer a better deal. The designer who designed that had no self respect.

Are you such a designer--that is a peer? Is the Wiki item peer-written? Who knows? Your conclusion is a country mile from justification.

--Brant

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