When we moved into our present home, one of the first minor upgrades I did was to replace all the incandescent bulbs in the house with Cree LED bulbs. PECO was offering a rebate which significantly brought down the cost, and I knew with my wife and kids' propensity to basically never turn off lights, the payback would be relatively short. Cree was one of the first makers of LED bulbs, and the ones I bought had a whopping rated 25 year life span, while running at a fraction of the wattage of a traditional 60w incandescent. Seven years later, the bulbs are still going strong, and our electric bill ranges from $65/month in milder seasons to $120/month or so for a few months in Summer when the AC is going.
I'm not usually an adopter of earlier technology, but in this case, it made sense to. Cree makes a great lightbulb, but as a business strategy, they are setting themselves up to be company losers. Giles Slade, in his book “Made to Break,” traces the term “planned obsolescence” to a 1932 pamphlet, circulated in New York, titled “Ending the Depression through Planned Obsolescence.” The term gained currency in 1936, through a similarly themed essay in Printer’s Ink, “Outmoded Durability: If Merchandise Does Not Wear Out Faster, Factories Will Be Idle, People Unemployed.” The basic idea is if you make products to last, your business may not, because people will not be replacing them. There's an article on the topic at the New Yorker (which also showcases the mysterious "Centennial bulb" that has been on and burning since the early 1900's in England) here.
I've noticed in recent trips to Home Depot that the LEDs on the shelf now have a significantly shorter life span quoted on the packaging--something like three to seven years, a far cry from the 25 year lifespan of a Cree bulb. Most people don't give it a second thought to go out and buy a new lightbulb when one burns out after a couple years (for a history into this, see Phoebus cartel). When I scan the free ads on Craiglist, I also see a mountain of "Free scrap" ads of shiny looking newer washers and dryers with bells and whistles that are a few years old out to trash because something stopped working and it was too expensive to repair. I made sure when our current washer conked out recently after 20 years of service, to find an older used Maytag on Craigslist that was built to last. I found one for $50 (vs $500+ for a new washer) with a manual timer, hooked it up and it's been a workhorse. Planned Obsolesce in action.
There are also a lot of new construction houses going up in our area. It blows my mind how quickly some of these houses go up. 2x4 studs and plywood. They look nice from the outside, but as to longevity only time will tell. My suspicion is they will not age gracefully, since they seem to have flashy 'luxury' features but cheap-out on material quality. My father in law had a pipe leak somewhere in his condo and the plumber that came out said if they would have spent another $.50 on a higher quality fitting when constructing the place, it wouldn't have leaked. As another example, you can see that even new-growth timber is vastly weaker and inferior to old-growth timber used in construction 50-100 years ago. Our brick home was built in the 1950's and with newer plumbing and electrical, I feel like we have the best of both worlds. Men were genuine craftsmen during those eras, and took pride in their labor and the quality of their work.
I think there is something to this planned obsolesce. If we used some kind of composite in our roadways that eliminated potholes and cracking, these DOT roadcrews would be out of work. I remember the Phila Plumbers Teamsters fighting hard against the proposal for waterless urinals at the Comcast center downtown because, well, there would be nothing to work on in regards to maintenance. You get the idea.
One could say some of these newer evangelical "non-denominational" megachurches are like new construction. They are appealing from the outside ("Fellowship! REAL Relationship! KidzZone! Coffee bar!"). But will they stand the test of time, to weather modernity and all its empty promises of "progress?" They are the IKEA of churches, made from particleboard and dowels. I touched on this in What's Old Is New.
The Catholic Church, by contrast, is that kind of solid cherry dovetailed-joint dresser your grandmother owned for a hundred years that none of the grandchildren want because its not disposable and minimalist. So it gets put out to the curb, or sold for pennies on the dollar. One of these days, people will miss these kinds of pieces, and say "they don't make them like they used to" while not giving it a second thought of buying new furniture every few years because their particleboard bedroom set has fallen apart. The Church that Jesus founded, even with all its problems, was built to last.
Even the physical structures that were built in the 1800's, with their ornate detail and craftsmanship...we wouldn't be able to afford to build something like that today! Cheap labor and cheap materials and cutting corners doesn't give us magnificent churches and cathedrals. Same for our faith lives. That's why we shouldn't fetishize Tradition, or relativize it, but recognize it's value as something that was, in fact, built to outlast the storms of modernity.
I can't help but think the plan all along for our government is to make us more and more dependent on the federal teet, a direct contradiction to the spirit of our country's founding by way of self-governance, liberty, and virtue. It's a kind of 'planned obsolesce' in it's own right. Because you can't make money off of free men and you can't control them; and that's a scary thing for the overlords to come to terms with.
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