Major failures of capitalism – The Electronics Saga

[dfgrbac]

The way things are going, this could be the first in a series of articles. Anyway, I'll start with electronics since I am currently working out my frustration on this.

First of all, I am not a novice in electronics. I was trained as an electronics technician. Besides being a radar repairman in the USAF, I also worked at RCA. I used to build and repair my own equipment. My first FM stereo receiver I built from a Heathkit and it had state of the art FM stereo circuitry – circuitry that is not used anymore believe it or not. A few decades ago, the electronics industry decided among themselves that this circuitry was too good and really not needed – as reported at the time by Consumer Reports magazine. But my receiver was the best I ever saw. It picked up weak FM stations from other states that had adjacent frequencies right next to powerful local stations, and they sounded like they were equal! This receiver lasted 20 years with not a single problem!

Back in those days, radio and TV repair shops were commonplace as were electronic parts distributors. Radio Shack traces its roots to these days, but they don't carry electronics parts anymore like they used to do. All the other shops are gone. When a radio or TV broke back then, I could get schematic diagrams for them (actually a diagram usually came with the set), determine the burned out part (resistor, capacitor, whatever) and replace it for a very small cost – usually less than a dollar for the part. People commonly took their broken electronics to a shop for repair at a reasonable price.

Today is vastly different! Over the recent holiday season, my stereo receiver popped out on me. Frustration #1: It's only three years old, but out of warranty. Frustration #2: No diagrams are available, and if they were there are no public parts distributors anymore. Frustration #3: The local radio and TV repair guy (yes there is one in the area) said he does not repair this sort of product because they are so cheap; I should just go get another one! Hey, maybe it's cheap for him, but $200 to $1000 is not cheap in my book. I paid about $300 for the one that broke. So I checked on manufacturer recommended repair shops. Frustration #4: There are darn few repair shops today usually many miles distance. And the ones there are charge $40 to $80 an hour for their work! Therefore, my only reasonable option is to go buy another.

A couple of days ago I purchased a new SONY stereo receiver and ended up with frustration #5: It had no phono input jacks to my amazement! How could anyone design a HI-FI STEREO control center without phono inputs? All it takes is a couple of cheap transistors and jacks – WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL? It cannot be considered the center piece of your stereo without phono capability. Geeze! I took it back and ordered another with phono inputs.

The bottom line is that this is an obvious failure of capitalism, one of many. If I had the energy, I could write an article like this everyday. But what does this mean for society? Well, it means that we consumers (the darlings of capitalism) must buy new equipment although the set could be repaired for a few dollars. This stimulates the economy right? But is this the way things should work? Here are the disadvantages to society:

1. Perfectly good electronic parts and equipment are thrown in the trash heap due to the failure of one (probably inexpensive) item. This amounts to a huge waste of the natural resources that made those parts. This waste of resources is not efficient for society.

2.Smart consumers can no longer repair their own equipment because the information needed is not available, nor are the parts.

3.Service technicians are dumbed down to replace expensive modules instead of finding the bad part and replacing it. And although their job is easier, they charge a fortune for their work.

What is wrong with this picture? Do you have an “electronics saga” you'd like to add to this conversation?

[lectrobyte]

1. phono inputs -- probably 1 out of 100 customers would use them,

so it made sense to save $$ by not including them.

[cdsilv]

3. I believe he's talking about RCA 'phono' connectors -

...left and right component audio connectors..??

[lectrobyte]

6. I assumed he meant a phono (cartridge level) input for a turntable

which uses RCA phono jacks (same as CD inputs etc.). They need a tad more circuitry to RIAA equalize and boost the signal. Probably just pennies, but things are that competitive (I help friends set up their systems etc). I'm glad my late 1970's receiver is going strong, I dread the day it dies.

[dysfunctional press]

18. you need a grounding post for a turntable connection...

some still carry them, some don't.

[dfgrbac]

10. Why?

If you can have a complete HI-FI stereo control by including this one little feature, why exclude it? I know, a few pennies here and there saves them $millions. But this is not providing a complete control center - in my opinion.

[redqueen]

2. *sigh*

Reminds me of a phrase my dad told me about... "planned obsolescence".

We're sheep to be sheared... boards of directors don't give a hoot about waste or resources... only about the bottom line, and only during this quarter.

[lectrobyte]

4. You'd probably enjoy this article, about a company that

still tries to do things right:

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/102/open_snapper.html?partner=aol

quoting a paragraph:

Selling Snapper lawn mowers at Wal-Mart wasn't just incompatible with Snapper's future--Wier thought it was hazardous to Snapper's health. Snapper is known in the outdoor-equipment business not for huge volume but for quality, reliability, durability. A well-maintained Snapper lawn mower will last decades; many customers buy the mowers as adults because their fathers used them when they were kids. But Snapper lawn mowers are not cheap, any more than a Viking range is cheap. The value isn't in the price, it's in the performance and the longevity.

[dfgrbac]

12. But there are few.

There are very few manufacturers with that attitude - unfortunately.

[kenny blankenship]

5. Capitalization follows rising profits

Rising profits come from 1) more units sold 2) lower unit cost in parts 3) lower unit cost in labor and 4) the tooth fairy who worked for Ken Lay and Bernie Ebbers.
If you can't sell many more units year over year, you need to cheapen the product and/or fire workers in order to keep profits going up. If profits don't go up, the share price goes down as shareholders cash out and chase the profit bunny in other market sectors.
Home audio is one of those sectors that used to be the "hot tech stock". It was famous and sexy on Wall Street. Shares in the leading companies were stratospheric--like 400 dollars a share and going to the moon. The year was 1929.

Now everybody that needs a stereo pretty much has one, which means the market does not grow rapidly year over year. It's a mature--very mature--industry. The companies that do this kind of product either are specialists selling to a tiny tiny market of people who want the best sound and are willing to lay out the kind of dollar amounts usually seen in real estate transactions. Or the companies are gynormous hydra headed multi-comglomerate-transnational megaliths. Stereo is not a big profit sector for the big companies. They probably make more money from TVs what with people replacing last year's hot HDTV ready product with this year's larger, and even more HDTV ready models. Every now and then there are blips of interest when some new technology hits the market and sales pick up. The introduction and mass adoption of real stereo LPs in the late 1950s and early 60s was the greatest of these, and the introduction of the CD format in the 80s was a muffled echo. The big priority in the major corporations' audio electronics product lines is using cheaper and cheaper parts that require handling from fewer and fewer human beings. (So they will at least not lose money from stereo electronics sales.) People are conditioned to buy on whizbang features rather than build quality which is not something a lay person can assess easily, and there's no way to tell just looking or listening to something how long it will last.

And that's my idea of why it sucks.

[dmkinsey]

8. what he said

the benefits of capitalism largely accrue to capital.
Production is moved to the cheapest labor nation. The product is reduced to lowest possible cost.
The overwhelming majority of consumers are overtaken by "wal-mart thinking" that the price is the only consideration involved in a purchase decision.

Perhaps, for a while, a high-end manufacturer will buck the trend and continue making a really quality product but eventually they'll run out of customers and give up.

This year Trek Bicycles began selling a carbon fiber frame produced in China so that they can compete with Giant and Specialized. So ar it's only one model but...

[lectrobyte]

7. Cars are even worse. Lose a chip on something like an ABS

pump, and what should be a $20 repair turns into a $300 plus labor component replacement.

[bigmonkey]

9. I'd just like to point out, in passing ...

That this is precisely the kind of thing that caused the open-source/free software stuff. Specifically, a Xerox printer that wouldn't work when the system was upgraded, but Xerox wouldn't provide the data the user needed to get it to work again. The user - Richard Stallman. Good software doesn't need to be expensive, or hard to get.

I know, I'm a radical.

[dfgrbac]

15. I'm with you!

It's one reason I use the Linux OS.

[NorthernSpy]

11. our economy rewards waste and the destruction of value...

What you said reminded me of how manufacturers build high capacity hard drives, and then sabotage them -- deliberately reducing their capacity to keep the price per byte high:

It may seem to be lunacy to turn a 40GB hard disk into a 3.2GB disk - and of course it is. Unfortunately, our topsy-turvy money system rewards the creation of scarcity so it makes 'economic sense':( Computer retailers warranty hard disks and when a disk goes wrong, they often no longer have such a small drive available. Ethical companies would just replace the defective disk with a larger capacity drive, but some encourage people to buy an upgrade by deliberately nobbling large drives to make them behave like smaller, older drives:(...

Destroying functionality is sensible only within the selfish perspective of profit maxmisation; it is undeniably a waste of the world's resources, so we started this project to help users reverse the change made, restoring such hard drives to their original size. Here is a list of capacities, manufacturer codes & model numbers of drives known to be affected, so that users who have a nobbled drive can quickly find this page and learn how to restore the disk size.

I'm totally with you on this. I always try to fix my own stuff, but we DIYers are really swimming against the tide. Increasingly, manufacturers are building products that won't even let you change their batteries. Seriously: iPods, Sonicare toothbrushes, and other things powered by long-life lithium batteries are actually meant to be thrown away when the battery no longer charges!

Of course, you can replace the battery in such products, but getting the thing apart without breaking the case is a challenge. They design things that way deliberately.

Can you believe it? That's how far this 'don't fix it, just toss it and buy a new one' trend has gone.

:think:

[dfgrbac]

16. Yeah, it is sad.

Thanks for the info on disks!

[sweetheart]

13. how not progressive

The electronics industry has transformed on the back of moore's law, this that what were
many individual IC packs in older designs are compressed in to 1 chip. Anyone familiar
with having a car blow its "chip" is aware of how core these new central super chips are
to the function of modern equitpment. The police are experimenting with EMF guns to
blow car-chips.

Do i want to go back to carrying a timing light and a box of feeler guages around in my
car so i can fix timing and ignition? No. I'm happy the computer does it. My car
runs for 10's of thousands of miles without any services...s omething inconceivable in
an age of heathkit radios.

But what the OP is really overlooking, is that the miniaturization of electronics has made
them cheap and hence ubiquitous. Hundreds of millions own home computers, something that
did not exist at all when the heathkit got built... and a calculator costs 99 cents at the
supermarket. A digital watch costs a few bucks, mobile phones are cheap and ubiquitious,
Broadband peer-to-peer networking has connected a billion people on CHEAP electronics.

So whilst you're wining about your heathkit repair, consider that the side effect is that
we will achieve saturation of computers, mobile phones and all those gadgets, capable of
delivering perfect digital radio in to your living room from anywhere on earth as if were
braodcast right next door. The information revolution is causing major changes in
the corporate media and all of this has served progressive political objectives.

I hear the complaints, but complaining about the root driver of the inforamation
revolution is complaining about a good thing.

[dfgrbac]

19. I'm all for cheap electronics, but ...

Junking a $300 receiver because of (most likely) a cheap part is not my idea of a successful industry.

[sweetheart]

24. sounds like a niche industry

I do agree with the person's beef about the home audio electronics
business. I find every new component to be a test of how cheesey
and crappy something can be made, how many corners can be cut.

That is business anymore, cut a lot of hidden corners and make your
customer overpay. I too have a 300 dollar sony stereo junk broken CD
player that is not worth it to fix. I figure i'll have to burn it, so
i can watch the electrolytic capacitors explode... always fun for
a home barbeque pyro. Plus, i've always wanted to burn a sony stereo,
now that nothing's worth repairing.

But the problem i have is i keep accumulating monitors, speakers and
cables. Everything else breaks, so i stick what's left in the attic
/computer boneyard. EAch time i buy a computer, and i'm on my 10th
personal PC right here, the price has dropped so much, that i feel like
a granddad to have paid so much for my previous one.

Was a time nigh ten years back, where 500 megabytes was enough to
run an entire software development company, and now its less than
the space many home photographers use.

I think the whole business will transform in the next 20 years as
the computer merges with the television and the stereo. Then there will
be no separate TV's in the house, everything working off internet superband.
Then all your radio broadcast will be by wifi antennas along freeways
transmitting superband to the car-computer. It may be 20 years or so,
but the computer home/car of the future will likely be a better sound
studio than what costed 10 million bucks in past.

Democrats should be positive about technology innovation. It is our
bedrock, and it seems so sad. This failure of capitalism is clearly
to innovate to the lowest standard the market will bear. Clearly the
market still bears it... and we can be thankful for the mountains of
useless plastic shit with 1 part broken.

[dfgrbac]

26. Don't burn your equipment! It's dangerous!

Electronic equipment is loaded with toxic chemicals. If you burn it, you will breath in this stuff and suffer the consequences.

Technology innovation is a good thing - absolutely! But it's not a good thing the way capitalism handles it. We are destroying our planet because of the way capitalism works! The only way we can make it work for the people as it should, is to regulate it. And to do that we, the people, must retake control of our government from the corrupt system it has become with both major parties. We must enact the National Initiative for Democracy!

[rman]

21. Buying a $300 stereo receiver every 3 years is more EXPENSIVE

then how it used to be: a cheaper better receiver that lasts 20 years.

And it doesn't have to be that way.
We can have both miniaturization and low price and durability at the same time.
Schematics and parts could be publicly available, at realistic prices.

Corporations would still make profits, just not so much so as they're doing now.

[tech3149]

14. After working in electronics for 30 yrs I quit

I couldn't take fighting with manufacturers for any information. Even as a trained rep working in an exlusive dealership, the company would keep a stranglehold on information. They'd release product based on a marketing schedule that had bums rush QC and field testing. Yuo'd spend a year dealing with repetetive failures and quirky operations before they'd admit a design flaw or software bug. All the while insinuating the service problems were somehow your fault.
I gave up when it got to the point that "service manuals" became nothing more than installation and programming manuals. I really miss being able to dig into equipment and really diagnose a problem!

[Canuckistanian]

17. I'm constantly amazed

I repair all of my own electronic stuff. And whenever I crack the case on something for the first time, I'm always amazed by the CHEAPNESS of the components and workmanship inside.

Bad soldering, flux not removed, cuts/jumper wires everywhere (always a bad sign) and missing hardware. I'm always impressed that this mess actually worked.

But I rarely have to scrap anything. Like you say, it's just a minor part that's failed, and I just replace it an I'm off again.

As for your phono capability, I'm not surprised. But bear in mind that the number of people who actually use turntables these days are probably 1/10 of 1% of what it used to be, say, in the eighties.

[dysfunctional press]

20. Ebay- capitalism at work.

if you want QUALITY electronic components at REASONABLE prices- if you know your stuff, there are definite bargains to be had. (Ohm 4XO speakers- $400/pair, and they're BEAUTIFUL)

[neweurope]

22. I'm happy to tell you about Manufactum.

A German company which is now present also in Austria, Switzerland and Great Britain. They sell everything from nails to vacuum cleaners and clothes, even food. Here's the GB link (they don't seem to offer as many products as in Germany, but I haven't really compared):

"The good things in life still exist"
http://www.manufactum.co.uk/?id=1324

They only sell quality stuff - not cheap, but also not overpriced. I've been buying things there for awhile now and I highly recommend them.

The story of the company is interesting: When they started no bank would give them money. So they asked people to buy shares, got their start capital like this - and nowadays every bank in the world gladly would give them credit but they don't need it, expanding all the while.

From their catalogue:
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper". Over a century later and John Ruskin's observation is still valid; what's more, we believe it says a lot about the products on offer today.

There was a time when the only problem facing quality goods was competition from goods of an even higher quality, now it seems that inferior goods are the main problem.

"Certainly, as far as household goods are concerned, there are very few high quality products which are not diminished by the proliferation of paler imitations, produced by unimaginative competitors at the lowest possible price.

Products have increasingly shorter life cycles, they come and go, are launched and disappear again. Everyday items have been turned from commodities into consumer goods, not built to last, but to be thrown away as soon as possible in order to make way for the latest fad or 'special offer'.
Not only is this harmful to the environment, it also means that we no longer have a 'special relationship' with the things we use every day and which help us to do something well.

How many of the products on offer today will ever become prized possessions?
This is why we have selected items of quality in the widest sense of the word:
- they are manufactured with great skill according to traditional methods and are thus reliable and practical;
- the materials are carefully chosen to suit the purpose, and are, therefore, attractive;
- they are made from traditional materials, i.e. metal, glass, wood etc., can be repaired and are environmentally friendly."

-------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Nobody]

23. There's a name for it, I learned it in economics class

It's called Planned Obsolescence. Things are designed to break so you have to buy a new one every so often.

[skids]

25. Here's some links for ya.

...we in computers have been watching this go on just about as long as you. Bean counters. Standards that exist just to create profit from incompatibilities. Superior products BetaMaxed time and time again. It's pathetic.

http://abrij.org/~bri/rants/usb.html
http://www.everist.org/smash_ms/gd/conspire.txt

[dfgrbac]

27. Yes it's pathetic. But what are we going to do about it?

We can change the way capitalism works by regulation, but the industries control our government and they won't put in regulation of themselves. We, the people, have to do it through the National Initiative for Democracy!

Here is more in the electronics saga.

[Karenina]

28. My son and I were discussing this today.

Our "throw-away" societies are simply UNSUSTAINABLE and their "unintended" consequences are leading us off a cliff, into an abyss.

Recently we've had a significant influx of people (who had the resources, education and skills to get the hell out) from the war-torn DNC. Seems there's a little dust-up there due to the mining some element used in cell phones (which ultimately find their way into the landfills by the THOUSANDS each day as they are "not worth" repairing).

My kid remembers me HUGELY pregnant with his brother, cursing the impediment my swollen belly presented in getting as far under my Datsun 280-Z as I wanted to. Anything that did not require a lift I did myself. Radiator, hoses, water pump, alternator, air-flow meter chip (bop it with a hammer), ignition... Brakes and fuel injection I left to the "experts." I put 196,000 miles on Z-BUGR before he blew his head gasket (then ran just long enough to drop me IN FRONT of my mechanic's shop. He LIKED me. I took good care of him. I could always SEE, SMELL or HEAR him telling me what ailed him). One CANNOT do those things today, dependent on pre-programmed lights, bells and whistles. Check THIS THREAD if you're the lucky owner of a VW Passat:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x202530

Not only have we lost our connection to Mother Earth, we've lost our connection to the damn contraptions we've built. It CANNOT continue this way.