planned obsolescence

**~~sabaku_no_gaara~~** · April 28, 2014, 06:26 AM

Stefan Schridde a German economist has launched a bit of a crusade against planned obsolescence there was something about him in a Belgian newspaper today, I thought it was quite interesting, he started a movement 2 years ago called: 'Murks? Nein danke!' in Germany.

He's amassing a bit of a following in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, and even spoke to the German environmental minister. And apparently next year they are going to start 2 lawsuits 1 in Austria and one in the US.

Over here, Test aankoop a consumer organisation has also started investigating the unethical practice of planned obsolescence .

Cracked's David Wong had a brilliant article about it as well:
http://www.cracked.com/article_18817...d-by-b.s..html

So what's your opinion on the practice? Personally I think it's a form of fraud, and fraud is punishable by fines and imprisonment...

**conon394** · April 28, 2014, 07:14 AM

Well I think you are being a little broad and unclear so it is hard to reply

The Cracked link while funny is a bit all over the map and not really coherent since it tends ignore economics that are not convenient. Maybe more later.

What do think planed obsolence is anyway? I mean let's take cars shall we? Well back were I grew up in Michigan the harsh winters and the prodigious use of salt would kill you car rather quickly. But having moved arid west with its mild winters and little salt, I find I can buy a fine Ford F-250 that is nearly pristine and
around 25 years old and it looks brand new and runs perfectly.

I suspect it would fail emissions tests in some localities - but that policy not manufactured planed obsolesce. Had it been sent to Minnesota it would likely be a rusted out hulk now but again what price do you want to pay to prevent that? I'm typing on and using a relatively cheap wireless mouse and keyboard but does that meran that secretly companies were hiding this tech or just it took a while for to replace wires?

**~~sabaku_no_gaara~~** · April 28, 2014, 07:56 AM

Originally Posted by conon394

Well I think you are being a little broad and unclear so it is hard to reply

The Cracked link while funny is a bit all over the map and not really coherent since it tends ignore economics that are not convenient. Maybe more later.

What do think planed obsolence is anyway? I mean let's take cars shall we? Well back were I grew up in Michigan the harsh winters and the prodigious use of salt would kill you car rather quickly. But having moved arid west with its mild winters and little salt, I find I can buy a fine Ford F-250 that is nearly pristine and
around 25 years old and it looks brand new and runs perfectly.

I suspect it would fail emissions tests in some localities - but that policy not manufactured planed obsolesce. Had it been sent to Minnesota it would likely be a rusted out hulk now but again what price do you want to pay to prevent that? I'm typing on and using a relatively cheap wireless mouse and keyboard but does that meran that secretly companies were hiding this tech or just it took a while for to replace wires?

No, I'm talking about Planned obsolescence as in counters in say inkjets that refuse to print after a set amount, or laundry machines that claim defects when there are non after a certain amount of times the door has been opened etc... Or Intel selling a chip and disabling certain features already there so they can sell unlock software as an "upgrade" or in gaming terms: on disc dlc

I think Companies should be forced to add big labels to machinery or electronics they sell that has been engineered to malfunction after a while so that consumers know they are buying something designed to break down at a set point to encourage more buying.

Here's something interesting:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/tech...460210#slide-1

**Denny Crane!** · April 28, 2014, 08:27 AM

Most of that sounds like utter BS and consumer choice.

**Condottiere 40K** · April 28, 2014, 08:56 AM

Besides the commercial potential, some products do have a sunset period beyond which usage becomes more of a hobby and/or conversation piece.

Some commodities, like PCs are flattening out since we have enough processing power and are being superseded by parallel products.

Printer ink cartridges are a racket; we'll have to wait for some naive genius to invent a new process and open source it, so that companies manufacturing the requisite machines don't get shut down by IP lawsuits. Or HP doesn't send it's snatch squad and he disappears.

**Denny Crane!** · April 28, 2014, 08:58 AM

There is already generic cartridges.

Whoever thinks game designers plan games to sell PCs has probably never remotely understood the first thing about the gaming market.