Is it possible to make a light bulb that never burns out? Was it possible 100 years ago? Of course it was, many have heard of the light bulb conspiracy and planned obsolescence, but most don’t realize how this is a fatal flaw in capitalism and needs a closer examination.
Planned obsolescence is designing something to break or be unusable after a set period of time (usually not more than a 2-3 years). With modern technology cars should last 30-40 years or more, but your lucky to get 10-12 years out of them. How can a system that intentionally sells users defective products be considered good and beneficial? This is a form of theft one much harder to see or understand.
The problems go much much deeper than this though. People love to say, but we don’t live in a capitalist society, we live in a CRONY capitalist society. This is just as naive as communist saying yeah but there has never really been a REAL communist society. The code of capitalism means a company must do what it can to maximize profits for the owners of the company, so if a company can make more money by buying off…. I mean lobbying…. politicians then the company is obligated to do so, it is also obligate to try and use the political system to hamper competition and keep a competitive advantage. There will never be any capitalist system that is not a crony capitalism.
When we peel the onion back a little further, capitalism means capital, which means money, which inevitably leads to banks (a minority of very wealthy people) controlling money. You can go back through history and this cycle repeats itself over and over, you always end up with a small group of people controlling the money supply and inevitably controlling the government and using its power to control the masses. Even kings and queens eventually fell under the control of those that controlled the money. Usury is big business, governments will always spend beyond their means and borrow at interest from the bankers/capitalist and give them power over them.
Before we start worshiping at the alter of capitalism we should take a step back and understand what we are really worshiping. Like government power the farther a product is made from the end user the less accountability there is. If you are in the USA and sell a product in the USA you have a much higher motivation to make it quality since the guy down the street will probably own one and no one wants have him come knocking on the door when it breaks. But, this is only part of the solution. There needs to be morals in corporation, and they need to be held to the same moral values as society as a whole. If you intentionally defraud your customers by selling them products designed to break then you need punished for this fraud, and not just a slap on the wrist fine, but the management needs convicted of crimes, the same crimes that an individual would be convicted of if they defraud someone out of their hard earned money. Yes, products would have to cost more, but they would be worth more after they are sold and would also be vastly cheaper in the long run, and when you want the latest with new technology the old one will still be useful to the next guy. This is a much more sustainable development as well, with much less wasted natural resources and energy.
What we are witnessing now is the natural evolution of capitalism and we should not be surprised by it. There is something to be said for buying as local as possible, and companies that engage in these immoral practices should be boycotted and changes should be demanded, but until they see their bottom line effected they will not change. If they all start losing massive amounts of money because people start demanding they act morally and honor the societies the do business in (and stop lobbying the government to give them unfair advantages) they will be forced to change.
Thanks for reading :)
Oz