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20

Obsolete capitalism
By: Mauricio Nio

Unbreakable washing machines no manufacturer dares to put on the market. The patent of the untearable pantyhose was bought to be destroyed. The tire that doesnt get punctures is kept locked In the novel 1399 euros, Octave Parango is a creative director in an important French publicitary agency who wishes to be fired. In order to achieve it, he would publish a book which will reveal dark secrets of the industries and the consumerism that makes the world spin. That is exactly what the writer, Frdric Beigbeder did. It may be a work of fiction, but this fragment speaks about a very real topic: its not good for enterprises to build long lasting products.

ach product manufactured today has one concept in mind: planned obsolescence. In the 2007 animated documentary The story of things, the director and expert in international commerce Annie Leonard defines it as the conscious elaboration of products that will turn obsolete in the short term due to a programmed fail or a incorporated deficiency . This means that the product is designed to be used for a short period of time, to break soon so the consumer will be forced to buy a new one. From cutting edge tech cell phones that cant resist a drop to digital cameras that only work for a limited number of shots. This Buy and throw away life style leaves tons of non biodegradables wastes, useless gadgets impossible to recycle. Ghana, among other countries like China, India, Nigeria and Pakistan, has been elected by all Europe and USA as a technological dumpster because of the inexistence of recycling legislation in the country. According to the United Nations, each year 50 million tons of technological wastes are produced. The Basilea Convention forbids the export of waste electronic products to developing countries because they lack the infrastructure capable of the proper processing for avoiding the contamination of the environment. However, that doesnt stop the more than 600 containers full of obsolete electronic devices

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that arrive each month to Tema, the countrys largest harbor. Only the 25% of the received goods, according to Green Peace, is still capable of being repaired and sold in second hand stores. The rest is accumulated in Agbogbloshie, the biggest garbage dump of the country. In only one computer, you can find highly contaminating materials such as mercury, barium, chromium, berilium and lead. The concept of planned obsolescence was first published in the United States in 1932, in a panflet written by a rich Jewish investor called Bernard London. With the planned obsolescence, London wanted to solve the Wall Street economic crisis. It looked like a practical way to promote the commerce and inject to the market the money that it needed so much. The factories wouldnt have to close. There would be jobs available for the large rows of unemployed men (so clichs in the movies and documentaries set during the Great Crash). Its not clear if Londons motivation was altruistic or just an ambition for profits. Nevertheless, the problem came up when this creative solution to the crisis became in the standard practice of the industry. The first example of planned obsolescence occurred in 1924. The main industrial firms such as General Electric or Philips- gathered to set that the average lifespan of light bulb would not exceed the 1000 hours. Back then, light bulbs could last up to 2500 hours and the technologic development tried to make them more and more durable. The bureaucratic pressure from the Electric Products Organization made it impossible. The manufacturers that trespass the 1000 hours limit got huge fines and their products couldnt reach the market easily. The biggest fear of the manufacturers always was: what if people buy everything and it lasts forever? Will they stop buying? For a company, a good industrial designer is not the one who creates a product that will perfectly work for 10 years, but the one who gets the product to fail the very next day the guarantee expires. For anyone, this statement is outrageous, but thats how the industry works. Its not just about the lack of ethics towards its costumers, its about everyone wasting the limited natural resources of the planet in an unnecessary and irresponsible way. Luckily, consumers start to realize the problem and take conscience like the Spanish entrepreneur Benito Muros, the driving force of the SOP program (With no Planned Obsolescence, by the acronym in Spanish). Muros and a group of engineers successfully created a light bulb with

The concept of planned obsolescence was first published in the United States in 1932, in a panflet written by a rich Jewish investor called Bernard London. With the planned obsolescence, London wanted to solve the Wall Street economic crisis. It looked like a practical way to promote the commerce and inject to the market the money that it needed so much.

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LED technology. The light bulb has a lifespan of 80 years, uses 92% less energy than a conventional one and produces 70% less CO2 emissions. Or the case of Hewlett Packard (HP) workers the company who sells computers- who leaked into the internet a manual to reset the printers which were programmed to stop working after 10000 copies, due to a chip installed during the manufacture. Satisfied consumers are not good for the market. Happy people dont consume, like Beigbeder said on his book. The industry needs the need of buying. But a contemporary consumer has all the information possible to fulfill a responsible purchase. To change the situation is required the intervention of strong governments that dont look the other way in front of non ethical practice that endangers the environment, the economy of the consumers and even their health. On the other hand, the chemist and Green Peace activist Michael Braungart states that every industrial process can be redesign from scratch not only to obtain high quality and durable goods, but to guarantee that every component of the product can be reused in the manufacturing of a new one, when the old one is obsolete.

Satisfied consumers are not good for the market. Happy people dont consume, like Beigbeder said on his book. The industry needs the need of buying.