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quite the melodramatic!
the reason these products are made isn't greedy companies, it's consumer demand. it started back in the 60s and 70s with things like vacuum cleaners. everyone just used to get one that was built to last, cost the earth and that was that.
companies recognised there was a demand for cheaper goods, and focused on price and design - as the new consumer was a fickle one - and in doing so could really sell a greater volume of goods, at a greater profit margin, to a bigger market. everyone won really. the consumer got the choice that they craved, with vacuum cleaners that could look nice as well as just be functional. this has filtered into every aspect of our lives - our cars, our phones, every consumer product will have had a design specialist look at it and say "how can we make this look cool?". then the brand was born and it became about what name was on the product.
the problem with the durability is down to two aspects. one, not related to greed, is targeting the low price point. You can get an iPod these days for £100 most likely - if they were built with the best of the best with better everything you could expect the price to double. but since people are going to upgrade their iPods in 5 years anyway, why make them last 20? Who still uses their sony walkman? Aspect two which I've only come across with a few companies (apple is one of them) is the use of proprietary parts so if it breaks, you have to go back to the manufacturer to get it fixed who can charge you an arm and a leg. When my xbox 360 controller broke I took it to the local electrician who fixed it for £5. Many gas boilers that you get will have parts that are designed to fail after so long, it's easy enough to get it fixed by an engineer who has to add £80 onto your bill to get the 'official part' from the company.
But for the most part with consume goods, the companies adapt to what the consumer wants. The fact is, we are greedy. We want tonnes of crap. We borrow money from banks and credit card companies we sometimes can't afford just to buy more of this crap, because it looks good. And we can say "not me... I want to buy high quality stuff" but the fact is we all succumb to this culture.
Whether we should work to change this culture is a different question. Do people want to change this culture? To stop buying clothes because they are the height of fashion? To stop getting cheap stuff because it's not designed to last? Where a toaster might cost £50, a microwave £250?
It's not perfect and there are serious issues that affect the environment, but I like getting new shiny stuff for relatively low prices
I think most people will find that larger goods such as white goods and TVs are designed to have a considerable life span. My washing machine is 8 years old, and used on a very regular basis and hasn't yet broken down. My fridge was 6 years old before I replaced it (only because it was too small, not because it broke).
I have a TV and DVD player upstairs that I bought for my wife 8 years ago, neither has yet broken down.
Yup, they don't make 'em like they used to.
Correct, they don't. But then all of those things are technically obsolete, hence why such things are not made any more.
I have loads of older gear that still works perfectly - because it wasn't just cheap tat when new. Amplifier from 1984, another from 1994, speakers from 1986, another pair from 1997, my TV is from 1997, a tape deck from 1994, walkman from 1996... none were particularly cheap when new(and I certainly didn't buy them all new), but they are well-made products from what are generally considered to be good manufacturers for the particular product line.
But here and now, things are quite different. Laptops are ten a penny for £400 or less. Go back a decade, and IBM(who were IMO the best at the time) were regularly selling models for over £3k without VAT.
Do consumers still want to pay that kind of money for quality gear, or do they want the good-looking gear produced by some lad in China for a heap less money?
I don't really buy much these days. I've just changed my phone... my last was new in mid-2005. It still works almost flawlessly to this day, despite some quite heavy use - the only problem is the joystick is a PITA to make scroll down, which makes reading text a real problem. But the battery is still superb, giving 4-6 days on a full charge. It's a smartphone too, so the life from the battery is great, epecially for something that'll be 4 years old in a few days.
I've gone slightly off-topic, haven't I...
Some people like to upgrade their phone/camera every year. I always think why when the current one still works?
It's the way things have always been.
There was definitely a 'paradigm shift' moment in the early-mid 20th century towards 'consumer goods' or whatever you want to call them that, in design in some office somewhere, had price point, and aesthetics (and even ergonomics) as the big factors before functionality and reliability. Products really were seen rather than as some random invention in someones warehouse to do a job, as items to sell on. So there is now a massive focus from the first stage of development "can we sell this?" "what makes this appealing to consumers?" "what would a consumer pay for this?".
In ye olden days as it were people often made something, and hoped it sold, often without real consideration for scale and costing.
Along with marketing, and freely available credit, it ushered in the late 20th century 'buy it all' consumer who literally could buy everything they wanted, on a credit card or whatever.
This made people happy, believe it or not. Things were cheap enough that when they broke people could replace it - fair enough it sucks but these days look at someone's PC. If it breaks, they've normally had it three years and they have to weigh up getting it fixed for £150 or buying a new one for £300 that is twice as fast. And there is something that feels good about getting new stuff.
People complain about it all the time, but I'm sure the adult of 1900 had clothes that they would have kept for 10, 20 years - just fixing it when it needed fixing and so on. These days, plenty of people go through a whole wardrobe in 2 or 3 years, and they are positively happy to do so.
Do we need this shallow junk? Of course we don't. Do we want it? Well, it would seem the overwhelming majority do. Of course people moan about reliability, but hey if you wanted a more reliable version there are industrial versions for most things where the buyer might be a business owner costing up the lifetime of the asset, rather than considering whether it looks good or is cheap. Nobody buys that though, because you wouldn't buy a mobile phone for £600 even if it lasted 20 years. You'd get one for £50 that will break in 3, then get another one for £50 - in fact isn't that what everyone does?
To keep up with the height of fashion and technology and everything else is very much a social imperitive. If you saw someone in a street wearing old clothes you might be inclined to think they were poor or somehow inferior, the way we judge people and the way we are judged and our how socialisation process these days depends on how many of these consumer goods we have and how up to date they are. An example being the 'glamour' attached to owning a brand spanking new car.
This is all ingrained into our culture. And I honestly don't think for all the whining and moaning that most people want it changed.
Me too. That being said, I did get a phone last year when the other one worked - but it was becoming rather inaccessible for me.
It's like with computers - my brother appears to upgrade his every year and I've had mine (and not upgraded it ever) for the last 2 years. The only reason why I'll be getting one (or laptop) is because of university and everyone uses mine. (because it's the one that works with the scanner/printer/all in one thing)
Because my new phone is
Smaller
Faster
More memory
better battery life
better camera
extra features like Wi-fi and GPS.
I want a new camera, because whilst mine is adequate the next model up produces images that are noticeably better in every way.
Human civilisation is driven forwards by the things we design and the things we create. If we all decided "this works ok, let's not bother making anything else" we'd still be living in caves and shitting in holes.