Why does inbuilt obsolescence exist?
Think about that for a minute …
- Does it make any sense?
- Is it efficient?
- Is it beneficial?
- Is it ecologically friendly?
- Does it assist people?
- Does it assist society?
… if you answered yes to any of the above questions, you might be completely stupid (see your doctor immediately).
What is it?
Inbuilt obsolescence is the intentional design of products to fail … NOT for the purpose of safety, such as in the crumple zones of cars … that is not an example. Inbuilt obsolescence is when you know you could have made something better, but you don’t, with the specific intention of causing the user to replace it with a brand new device long before they should have otherwise had to do so, and on a global scale it wastes vast amounts of resources … not because we cannot recycle much of those resources, of course we can … but any object, process or system has entropy (loss), so you’re doing things that don’t need to be done, and you’re only able to recover a fraction of the resources spent in doing so … NOT THE LEAST OF WHICH IS THE WASTE OF HUMAN LIVES IN LABOUR.
Why do we do it?
One reason … because in the insanity that is the property, trade & currency economic paradigm, it is profitable (for some) to do so.
It is not profitable for the people who work in the factories … they do more hours of work to produce and distribute more products, because the system requires production, consumption & growth to survive … but give those people an alternative means to survive in which they actually enjoy their lives rather than being locked up in a factory for a few decades, and I’m pretty sure you can guess which option they’ll pick … because no one wants the latter.
The Alternative:
Open Empire can change this, because the profit motive can entirely cease to exist … or if you want to look at it as a redefined profit motive, it is no longer the profit of personal gain of possessions, it is now the profit of decreasing scarcity of all resources, so that possession itself becomes irrelevant.
Consequences:
So what do you think happens (as time goes by) on a finite world of finite resources, where a system is in play that intentionally wastes so many resources on meaningless production (of otherwise useless items), then artificially manufactures the of “need” for such items (by manipulating people’s psychological vulnerabilities), and then further increasing resource consumption by intentionally designing such items (plus any genuinely useful ones) to fail, or become otherwise useless, redundant or obsolete ..?
What happens is that the ecosystems of that planet are utterly strained past the point of breaking, and then they collapse (just as we’re starting to see happen now over the last few years and decades) … unable to recover without (at the very least) a very long break from our abuse and exploitation … all of which of course is made vastly worse by the fact that the corporations motivated to do this damage, are also motivated to avoid responsibility, as that responsibility would eat into their profits (especially with such unimaginative simpletons running these corporations, who struggle to find a reason and motivation not to pursue such a horrendously idiotic and insane agenda).
Conclusion:
It’s a no-brainer, we need my system online and operational yesterday … which means I need bucket loads more support than I’ve been getting!!!