During the Great Depression a man called Bernard London came up with a plan to organise capital and labour in a way that would ensure the continued existance of both, and get the unemployed back to work:
My proposal would put the entire country on the road to recovery, and eventually restore normal employment conditions and sound prosperity. My suggested remedy would provide a permanent source of income for the Federal Government and would relieve it for all time of the difficulties of balancing its budget.
Briefly stated, the essence of my plan for accomplishing these much-to-be-desired-ends is to chart the obsolesce of capital and consumption goods at the time of their production. I would have the Government assign a lease of life to shoes and homes and machines, to all products of manufacture, mining and agriculture, when they are first created, and they would be sold and used within the term of their existence definitely known by the consumer. After the allotted time had expired, these things would be legally “dead” and would be controlled by the duly appointed governmental agency and destroyed if there is widespread unemployment. New products would constantly be pouring forth from the factories and marketplaces, to take the place of the obsolete, and the wheels of industry would be kept going and employment regularized and assured for the masses.
When a manufactured product lasts forever it’s a tragedy for business. Once demand is satisfied, production is no longer needed. Jobs are lost. Without a dynamic, growing market, capitalism is under threat – something has to give. Bernard London’s solution was planned obsolescence. Today’s solution is continual consumption. It amounts to the same thing; you can’t have one without the other. Only now it’s euphemistically called ‘product lifecycle’ and the details are taught in all major industrial design courses.
Cossima Dannoritzer’s documentary ‘The Light Bulb Conspiracy’ examines the development of planned obsolescence through the light bulb cartel that limited the life time of a light bulb from 2,500 hours to 1,000; the reduction of the strength of the nylon stocking to ensure breakages; and the inclusion of a microchip in an ink-jet printer which acts as an automatic switch limiting the number of copies the printer will produce. All in the aid of ‘repeated frequent purchase’ – shopping our way to growth. It’s a great documentary and well worth a watch:
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The second half, though a little thin, does offer some pointers to a fightback. When consumers become citizens and harness the power of new communication technologies, resistance and change can take place.
So the story of the 2003 class action against Apple and its iPod. Apple’s stated policy when the iPod’s battery ran out was to suggest that users buy a new iPod. It was quickly revealed that the lithium battery used by Apple had been designed for a short life-span. Unsurprisingly, when rumbled, Apple settled out of court.
Whilst planned obsolescence mitigates the tragedy of business, the obsolete has to be dumped somewhere and at the moment that’s Ghana. But there’s a fight back there too. The source of the rubbish arriving on the landfills is being listed and court action planned to sue those responsible.
There’s also a return to refurbish and repair, something that poorer countries do as a matter of course. It’s now being encouraged as a legitimate business plan. The ethical obligations towards a future generation are being taken seriously by people (including Walter Philips of light bulb fame) who want to design products that last forever.
The movement from cradle to cradle epitomises this philosophy. It’s the idea, taken from the virtuous cycle of nature, that the natural world produces no waste only nutrients. Industrial production should use that model – use only nutrients in the manufacture of products so that those products can never be conceived of as becoming post-use waste.
But for some, this is not enough. What is needed is a wholesale rethink of the productive forces that give rise to unsustainable production of waste: a paradigm change towards de-growth. To others we need to destroy the very civilisation that the industrial complex has built.
Much of the Light Bulb Conspiracy supplements the excellent documentary ‘The Corporation’ especially in the mindset that needs to change if we are to remedy the current tragedy:
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