Made to Break 1st third pg 1-83

In the book "Made to Break" written by Giles Slade, Slade talks about the Capitalist Government and the industries in America and how they use products to produce more revenue. They are able to produce more revenue by purposely making products that will break after a certain amount of time. This amount of time could be right after the manufacturer warranty expires. Giles Slade exaplins it as, "Planned Obsolescence is the catch-all phrase used to describe the assortment of techniques used to artificially limit the durability of a manufactured good in order to stimulate repetitive consumption"(pg. 5). That way consumers, American society, will continuously buy the same products once every 3 or 4 years (depending on when the product is set to discontinue to operate). These products range from everyday household items such as toasters, tv's, vacuums, to large products like cars. (I heard BMW's are set to break down after they reach the 100k miles mark).

With the ever-growing rate of technology today, technology is getting out-dated faster and faster. A technology that was made today can be outdated quickly in a matter of months, weeks, or even days. That is why the brand new technology being sold on the market is the most expensive and a few years later you can get the same product for about 1/8 of the price. I remember when i bought an I-Pod (the really bulky one with no graphics on the screen and it was 300 dollars). The technology is outgrowing itself and is a perfect product to be used with "planned obsolescence". Justus George, an advertiser, brought up the notion of "Progressive Obsolescence" because consumers are not dumb and become wearer of the products that magically just stop working. He suggests, "the progressive obsolescence principle...means buying for up-to-dateness, efficiency, and style, buying for....the sense of moderness rather than simply for the last ounce of use" (pg 58). American society wants products they can rely on and pay for the newest product in its category. They do not want to see their personal belongings die after a short period of time after they have purchased the item.