"They don't make them like they used to" actually has a reason for existing. They DON'T make things very well anymore, so we can "break" them, and purchase more overpriced goodies!"
Yes this is a well known ploy of corporations. The best example is stereo equipment. If you bought stereo equipment in the 60s, 70s or very early 80s you would find that most of it is still functional today. However sometime in the 80s corporations started designing products that would purposefully cease to work after 5-10 years. They came to the conclusion that if they didn't do such a thing they couldn't get you to buy more. Why would anyone buy new stereo equipment every few years?
The only question that they might have had was brand loyalty, i.e. why would you buy Sony again after the Sony you just bought quit working on you? But the answer is simple, in this nasty corporate world we've created there is no alternative. The other brands are all corporations that engage in the same practices. So even if you feel burned by one corporation in a few years you'll be a potential customer once again when your newer system fails.
But this begs one question... what came first the chicken or the egg? Either they started to do this regardless if other corporations did or once they saw that others products lasted less time they purposely engineered their stuff to be faulty. I think we can rule out collusion, only the extremely paranoid would go so far as to find conspiracy theories here...
Everybody wants to cut costs. If you don't do it first, you end up with your high quality stereo on the shelf, next to one that looks exactly the same, from a brand that everyone remembers being good in the past, but that costs a hundred bucks less, AND makes a much bigger profit... How do you compete?
I get the impression that the collusion is mostly just a part of "getting things done," and "the way things work." I don't know how often evil people get together on a large scale and manipulate things that way, though I would expect that they would with some regularity depending on their sphere of power.
I also don't think that specific conspiracy theories are necessary in every instance, when people's hearts are often enough bent towards perpetuating evil, and at least towards increasing one's own bank account at every opportunity (and sometimes at any cost).
So what's the difference, really, besides a few surface details (like size)?
Yes this is a well known ploy of corporations. The best example is stereo equipment. If you bought stereo equipment in the 60s, 70s or very early 80s you would find that most of it is still functional today. However sometime in the 80s corporations started designing products that would purposefully cease to work after 5-10 years. They came to the conclusion that if they didn't do such a thing they couldn't get you to buy more. Why would anyone buy new stereo equipment every few years?
The only question that they might have had was brand loyalty, i.e. why would you buy Sony again after the Sony you just bought quit working on you? But the answer is simple, in this nasty corporate world we've created there is no alternative. The other brands are all corporations that engage in the same practices. So even if you feel burned by one corporation in a few years you'll be a potential customer once again when your newer system fails.
But this begs one question... what came first the chicken or the egg? Either they started to do this regardless if other corporations did or once they saw that others products lasted less time they purposely engineered their stuff to be faulty. I think we can rule out collusion, only the extremely paranoid would go so far as to find conspiracy theories here...
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But I still dont like it.
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I also don't think that specific conspiracy theories are necessary in every instance, when people's hearts are often enough bent towards perpetuating evil, and at least towards increasing one's own bank account at every opportunity (and sometimes at any cost).
So what's the difference, really, besides a few surface details (like size)?
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