Are you noticing that the things you're buying just aren't lasting as long as you thought they would? There's a reason for that. It comes down to the economic principles of planned obsolescence and consumer engineering.
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00:00 Are you sort of noticing that things aren't quite made
00:03 how they used to be?
00:04 Computers, phones, furniture, white goods, clothing,
00:08 things that you're buying just don't seem to be lasting
00:11 as long as you thought they would.
00:13 And now not only are you out of pocket,
00:15 but you're also being left with a mountain
00:17 of consumer rubbish to deal with.
00:20 Well, you're not imagining it and you're not alone.
00:24 Products really are not made to last these days.
00:28 Take for example, this electric blue jumper I'm wearing.
00:33 I bought it about 15 years ago
00:34 and while it's certainly not as vibrant as it once was,
00:38 it's still going strong in my wardrobe.
00:41 In fact, for the sake of transparency,
00:43 everything you can see I'm wearing here
00:46 is about a decade old.
00:48 These are the things that have lasted,
00:51 but there's more items I've bought
00:53 that have just barely made it past a year.
00:57 We're all dealing with the same problem here
00:59 and that begins right back at the design phase.
01:03 When a company goes to make a thing, say my jumper,
01:07 they balance three main factors.
01:10 Firstly, its functionality.
01:12 Secondly, its appearance or style.
01:15 And thirdly, its manufacturability.
01:18 Will this jumper be easy to mass produce for a small cost
01:23 so that the company can maximize its profits?
01:27 When this balance is thrown off
01:28 and manufacturability becomes the main goal,
01:32 the other two, functionality and style, may take a backseat.
01:36 There are two reasons why this is increasingly happening.
01:40 Firstly, the way we shop
01:42 has dramatically changed over the centuries.
01:45 We used to buy our clothes from a tailor.
01:47 Then we started shopping in department stores
01:50 and now many of us will go online for what we need.
01:53 So companies are relying more and more on mass production
01:57 to keep up with the demand.
01:58 The other reason comes down to a thing
02:01 called planned obsolescence.
02:04 That's a term that was coined by Ernest Elmo Calkins
02:08 in the 1930s when he petitioned the US government
02:12 to support something called consumer engineering.
02:16 It's the idea that companies, in order to survive,
02:20 they need to stay relevant.
02:21 And to stay relevant, they need consumers
02:24 to continually return.
02:26 So you're encouraged to buy something new
02:28 not because the things that you have are wrong,
02:31 but because there is now a new style or new function
02:35 in newer models now on the market.
02:38 And the same goes for technology.
02:40 More and more products are coming onto the market
02:42 that are intentionally hard or expensive to repair.
02:46 You probably don't have the resources
02:48 to repair the computer chip in your microwave, for example.
02:52 So it's easier for you to replace the whole thing
02:54 than to fix it.
02:56 So now we're buying more frequently
02:59 and companies are pressed to keep manufacturing costs down
03:03 so that consumers can continue to pay low prices,
03:07 which has an effect on quality.
03:10 Our trends are cycling through faster and faster
03:13 and something's gotta give.
03:15 But the power remains in the hands of the consumer.
03:19 This stuff is meant to be made for us.
03:22 So we can make some small changes
03:24 to improve the lifetimes of our things.
03:27 Many companies and countries are moving towards
03:29 allowing customers the right to repair electronics.
03:33 And as for fashion, it comes down to intentionality.
03:37 If more consumers stay away from fast fashion
03:40 and learn to take care of the things we already have,
03:43 things will inevitably start to change.
03:47 When it comes to retail,
03:48 we the consumers can follow one simple rule.
03:52 Buy less, God bless.
03:55 (gentle music)
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