Planned obsolescence - A bit of a rant

[Avalon]

Dear Board,

I posted this elsewhere but I'm interested in your thoughts.


Dear Board,
When I was a kid my parent's moved into an apartment where they raised the 3 Murphy boys. It was 1967 and the apartment featured a black clunky rotary dial phone hard mounted to the wall. In 2004 my parent's finally moved out and into the retirement townhome they always wanted. That phone still worked the day they left.

Contrast that with more modern times. In 1993 I bought my first cordless phone, a Sony with an answering machine. Through October of 2002 it was my only phone and in all that time I never once had a problem and I never had to replace a battery.

Fast forward to today. I replaced all of my phones except the answering machine phone with new phones because 3 new cordless 5.8 Ghz phones cost $ 2.98 less than 3 new batteries, $ 62.99 for the phones versus $ 65.97 for the batteries. I did spring for the $ 26.99 batteries for my answering machine/phone combo figuring it was better than spending $ 150.00 +/- to replace it.

Last summer I put 2 new 72 month batteries in my diesel pick-up after 7 1/2 years and they cost as much a piece as repowering 3 phones?????????????????????????????????

Am I the only one who finds a fundamental flaw in this use it for a couple of years and then replace it logic? Maybe it's my background in the heavy equipment business, but I simply can't get past the concept of running things to destruction?

Where I come from everything has at least 2 or 3 cost efficient rebuilds in it when bought new. You either swap out everything at 4 or 5 years when the value is high or you run it to absolute stone cold death.

As consumer's today we are being conditioned to buy something and the first time it has a problem beyond the warranty period just toss it and buy a new one.

I don't think we have the resources or wherewithall to continue on this path, yet the failure periods seem to shortening in duration?

Am I just an old **** or do other people see a problem in making faster, better, newer, junk until everything runs out?"

Regards,
Tim Murphy

[rookie]

Bingo!

I have been wishing I could go back about 150 years, maybe longer.

I had better quit writing now.

[Big Bad Wulff]

To me THIS is the reason for the "recession". We are ALL sick and tired of buying CRAP. Time for some simple times. I really think this is the main reason for the "slow down".

[hutjensmpg]

My oven broke a coupla years back. I easily identified that the igniter was the only problem and the stove worked just fine. I looked up the part in the manual, searched the net and found that I had to buy an 'assembly' that would cost almost $200. This assembly was spot welded to the frame and would have to be cut off, then I'd have to drill holes in the frame and the new assembly and either tap it out or bend my wrist in several directions at once to install that. I finally broke down and just bought a new one that was a small upgrade for $400. I ranted about that one for a good year afterwards...

[gonfishn]

As long as the recession is only that and doesn't lead to more.
I spent most of my childhood with my grandparents who lived a very hard life through the depression.They came through with a work ethic and sense of thrift that just doesn't jive with our current lifestyles.
With all the loans currently going into default,our national debt growing at over a billion dollars a day,our government trying to support more social programs than we can imagine and social {in}security wondering how to fund the next generation it really makes you wonder what the founding fathers would say if they could look at the USA today.
We live in the greatest country in the world but i'm afraid that we're headed down a really rough road and truly fear what we are leaving our children.

My 2 cents and probably worth about that much.
Randy

[Gnu Bee Flyer]

When I was a kid you went to the grocery store and bought potatoes, carrots, apples , etc out of a bin. Pickles out of a barrel. You put your stuff in either a cardboard box you brought for that purpose or in an wooden apple box , also brought for that purpose. Peanut butter came in a jar with a handle on it so when you finished the peanut butter you had a mug for use in your home. that is the only type of glasses we had in our house. That's all we could afford. Japanese oranges ( mandarins ) came only at Christmas time and were a carefully measured out treat. Produce only came in growing season. There were only certain time of the year you could get certain things. Not like now a days year round fresh fruits and vegetables.
I was amazed when ball point pens became throw aways. You used to buy refills for them. The new plastic Ice cream pails were a marvel when they came out. You could actually use them for things after you ate the ice cream, amazing! Plastic was just getting started and if you dropped it, it shattered. If your plastic cup got a crack in it, it tasted nasty. Man I wonder what chemicals they put in that stuff? Then came melmac dinnerware, wonder of wonders you couldn't hardly break that stuff. prior to that a dropped plate was a broken plate. Heavy aluminum pot and pan sets were sold by door to door salesmen. Some of that stuff is still in use today. Nowadays pots come with non stick coatings that lasts about a year tops. If you check the warning labels on anything Teflon and non-stick except good old cast iron, it warns you not to store or use it near a bird cage. Why because it will kill the bird that's why. next time your in a store pick up a fry pan and actually read that warning label. Really scary stuff. Lighters began to come as throwaways. Pretty soon more and more stuff had a expiry date on it. Nothing is built to last anymore that's so they can keep selling us stuff we don't need. I recently had to replace the fuel control valve or something like that ( can't remember the name of it ) on the side on my carburettor for $210.00 . As I complained to the mechanic about it He said that it was new for that model year and replaced a 12cent spring that did the same job last year. It was a retro fit so he just threw the broken one away and hunted up a spring and the car works fine. charged me $5.00 . That's another thing you don't see now a days an honest mechanic. Back off! You can't have mine!

As for a recession, I think you can put the blame squarely on outsourcing everything America makes to off shore. If a country doesn't produce stuff to sell like it always has done in the past, That country is not going to keep up. My 2 cents. Rant over. sorry!

[Avalon]

Dear Board,

Interesting reading so far, please keep it up.

If I can fall back to fishing for a while I've recently renewed an interest in saltwater surf fishing. Not blitz fishing where anyone can catch a fish if they can get their line in the water but more of a just "chuck it out and see what bites" type of fishing.

It's definitely not fly fishing, but if you have a good ear and are swift of foot you could walk the beach a bit fly casting and waiting for the drag clicker to click on that old Penn Squidder?

That is kind of what I am getting at, I mean have we really progressed?

We have so many modern trinkets to fiddle with that I sometime wonder if we know why we bother at all?

I grew up hard by a large city. When I was a kid once we were 50 miles from the beach I wanted the windows in the car open so I could catch the first whiff of the ocean. It mostly stunk of wet sand and dead clams and stuff but it meant we were getting close.

Nowadays though we live closer it seems we are further away?


Regards,
Tim Murphy