Reply #12: It's "planned obsolescence" carried to the extreme. [View All]

[karlrschneider]

It's possible, even simple, for example to manufacture a light bulb that will last 100 years, a tire that will go 50000 miles, a TV that'll work for decades...etc. You get the idea. Once that principle came to be recognized as a way to bring up the 'bottom line' it was incorporated into products. What bean-counter would stand for a once-in-a-lifetime purchase of his company's product? I ran up against the phenomenon 20 years ago...I developed a particular piece of machinery that kept working for...many many years, as opposed to the commonly used one that would crap out in 1 or 2. I sold a bunch of them in the beginning but never got any repeat orders. (I do get, rarely, an order for a replacement needed because somebody tried to 'adjust' it with a hammer or similar)