Planned Obsolescence

All things run its course. And maybe this site has run its own. I used to wonder why one of my favorite professors stopped publishing academic papers at some point and I think I understand that better now.

I help one of my neighbors from time to time. She’d run into a situation where her water pitcher filters were out of stock wherever she shopped for them. After some research, we figured out that the manufacturer had stopped making the pitcher model and the filters that go with it. Stop selling the product refill (the filter) and make room on the shelf with something that it’s incompatible with (the NEW and IMPROVED water pitcher) that just so happens to make the one you already own worthless. Without a replacement filter, the pitcher is just another piece of plastic. An oil-based product that can and should be recycled.

Bottled water and I have a strained relationship. It’s essentially tap water in a plastic bottle that ends up taking space in a landfill. Some companies have no-compete contracts to horde a public resource (water) and claim it as their own. You can argue it’s more complicated than that, but not any more complicated than highway robbery is complicated. You can use a word like ‘appropriating’, but it doesn’t change what it is: the thing in itself. Like one of my favorite movie lines from THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU’RE DEAD goes, “Give it a name.”

It’s called planned obsolescence and some companies make it their bread and butter. That’s their prerogative. Everyone needs to make a dollar I suppose. Why I chose to give away content about economics in our everyday lives was another choice, but no good deed goes unpunished.

Thanks for your attention and reading about these things. I learned a lot and may one day write something else. But for now, I just wish you well and hope you find whatever it is you’re looking for.

Remember, it’s called the dismal science for a reason. Bitchslapping the truth (2011-2021). Always working on the backhand… 

– AE 9.17.2021 ☛ ☚