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Speaker 1: Hey everyone, it's Josh and for this week's select, I

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Speaker 1: picked our episode on Planned Obsolescence. It's the one where

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Speaker 1: Chuck and I turned into old fogies and start griping

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Speaker 1: about how things today aren't as good as they used

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Speaker 1: to be, but it turns out that we're right. It's

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Speaker 1: one of the more eye opening and maddening episodes, and

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Speaker 1: hopefully it'll shine a bit of light on one of

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Speaker 1: the more wasteful aspects of our global mechanism. I just

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Speaker 1: made that turn up, So sit back and check it out.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,

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Speaker 1: and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryan over there, and there's

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Speaker 1: Jerry over there. So this is Stuff you should know.

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Speaker 1: Built a break edition? Okay, I didn't. I was not

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Speaker 1: paying attention when you said which one we were doing,

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Speaker 1: and I thought, you know what, just gonna pick up

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Speaker 1: on the clues. Wow, right right out of the gate.

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Speaker 1: When did you have it? When I said, um, there's

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Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Bryant planned to break? Okay, got that

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Speaker 1: was pretty sharp, Chuck, hey man. After the eleven as years,

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Speaker 1: it's as easy as that. You can read my mind.

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Speaker 1: So let's talk about the civil Air Patrol. He just

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Speaker 1: threw me off. Luckily it wasn't enough for me to

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Speaker 1: stop and correct you. Though. I'm excited about this one

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Speaker 1: because planned obsolescence is one of those things that's, uh,

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Speaker 1: I think just annoying to people like us. Were you

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Speaker 1: were you raised with the idea of planning planned obsolescence? Like,

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Speaker 1: were you aware of it when you were younger? No?

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Speaker 1: Because when I was a kid, things seemed to last longer.

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Speaker 1: I had the same refrigerator my entire life as a child,

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Speaker 1: same metallic p refrigerator. We even got it like refaced,

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Speaker 1: Like that's how long you could have an appliance like that.

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Speaker 1: It's like the styles have changed, so just get a

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Speaker 1: new front for it. That's astounding, man, I didn't even

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Speaker 1: know that you could do that. Yeah, I mean, I

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Speaker 1: doubt if you still can know, but I definitely can't. Ye.

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Speaker 1: Back then, they were like, yeah, this is a fifty

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Speaker 1: year fridge, so every years, get a new thing on

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Speaker 1: the front. Yeah. Well, if you're sitting there going a

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Speaker 1: good When Chuck said fifty year fridge, that's okay. That's

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Speaker 1: the world. We live in now. The point is it

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Speaker 1: didn't used to be that way. UM. Things used to

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Speaker 1: last forever and ever, right, So what changed? That's a

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Speaker 1: big question that's on people's mind. And what a lot

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Speaker 1: of people point to is something called planned obsolescence UM,

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Speaker 1: which is pretty straightforward if you think about It's basically

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Speaker 1: UM companies deliberately making their products UM so that they

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Speaker 1: last a shorter amount of time in order to make

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Speaker 1: you the consumer, have to go back and buy an

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Speaker 1: other one much more UM, much sooner than you normally

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Speaker 1: would have if the things were built to last longer. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and there are a lot of ways that this can

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Speaker 1: go down. It's not always just like hey, build it

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Speaker 1: cheap or build it out of creuddy materials, but that

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Speaker 1: is certainly one way to do it. UM. Obviously, the

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Speaker 1: you know, with smartphones and the technology UH sector of

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Speaker 1: the world, that's where you really hear a lot about

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Speaker 1: this because, UM, I know a lot of people have

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Speaker 1: been frustrated with smartphones and the fact that like, hey,

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Speaker 1: maybe I want to go five years with a smartphone

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Speaker 1: and not have a new update, make it slow, or

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Speaker 1: not have my battery not work after three years and

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Speaker 1: stuff like that, Right, And I mean, like it shouldn't

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Speaker 1: have to be like an identity statement to have to

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Speaker 1: keep a phone for five years, like you're swimming against

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Speaker 1: the current or sticking it to the man. Like you

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Speaker 1: should just be able to keep your phone for as

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Speaker 1: long as you like and it's still not only continue

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Speaker 1: to work, but also to be like compatible with the

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Speaker 1: rest of the world going on around it. That's just

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Speaker 1: that's just not the way, that's not the case. That's

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Speaker 1: just not how things are made, especially in the technology sector,

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Speaker 1: like you were saying, right, and here's the thing is,

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Speaker 1: it's like this is something that a company is not

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Speaker 1: going to admit to. Um, it's not against the law. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Some people say it's a myth and it's just like

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Speaker 1: tinfoil hat territory. Um. Other people say, no, it clearly

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Speaker 1: totally happens. And then other people even say, yeah, it happens.

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Speaker 1: But this is great for the economy to keep people

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Speaker 1: making stuff all the time. Right. So there's this idea

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Speaker 1: of you know, is planned obsolescence a real thing? And

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Speaker 1: if it is real, because I think you kind of

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Speaker 1: touched on it with that third group, some people are like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it is real, but it's not like deliberate and out

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Speaker 1: of like a sense of avarice or exploitation. It's just

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Speaker 1: kind of part of the world we live in these stays. Um.

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of people that are like, no,

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Speaker 1: it is real, and it is deliberate, and it is

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Speaker 1: out of avarice, and it stinks. It does stink. We'll

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Speaker 1: find that there's a lot there's a lot wrong with it, right. Yeah, So, uh,

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Speaker 1: this this early light bulb story is pretty interesting. Um,

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Speaker 1: way back when Thomas Edison invented a light bulb in

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Speaker 1: the late eighteen hundreds that people could use in their homes,

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Speaker 1: he used carbon filaments which were eight times thicker than

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Speaker 1: the tungsten filaments that came like later, like three decades later.

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Speaker 1: So these things lasted a long time and they were

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Speaker 1: built to last. And I can't believe I'm forty eight

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Speaker 1: years old and I never had heard of the Centennial light,

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Speaker 1: which is a lightbulb from nineteen o one that is

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Speaker 1: still working in California. Yeah, and a fire station in California,

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Speaker 1: and it's on almost all the time. It's not like

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Speaker 1: they turn it off for thirty five years at a stretch. Now,

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Speaker 1: you probably wouldn't want to turn it off at this point,

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Speaker 1: would pay Probably not. That's probably the only reason it's

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Speaker 1: working is because it doesn't know. It doesn't have to.

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Speaker 1: They've got like the Scotch tape over the light switch

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Speaker 1: with like do not turn off. It's dim now though,

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Speaker 1: uh I saw that it's down to about a night

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Speaker 1: light for watts or so. Well, it's been burning for

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Speaker 1: a hundred and eighteen years, give it a break. Hey man,

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Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not knocking the centennial light. He's my

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Speaker 1: favorite little old light buddy. Not my presence abilities, but yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean that thing point is they were built to last.

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Speaker 1: And initially this is because electric companies installed and maintained

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Speaker 1: all these systems, including like hey, you needed a new bulb, Like,

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Speaker 1: we'll come and take care of it for you. And

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Speaker 1: then that got shifted to the consumer and they were

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Speaker 1: like hey, and they literally were like hey, because there

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Speaker 1: was a concerted effort that wasn't just like some abstract thought.

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Speaker 1: There was something called the Phoebus Cartel in the nineteen

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Speaker 1: twenties when all these electric companies from around the world

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Speaker 1: and bulb manufacturers got together and literally colluded and said, hey,

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Speaker 1: let's make lightbulbs not last. As long because we can

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Speaker 1: sell more. Yeah, collusion. Can you believe that? I can't

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Speaker 1: actually believe it. Not only it's not like they got together,

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Speaker 1: like they sent some letters or smokes and cigars or

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Speaker 1: happen to have like a conversation at a club or

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Speaker 1: something like that, Like they met in Geneva, Switzerland to

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Speaker 1: hold a secret meeting to form a lightbulb cartel to

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Speaker 1: make lightbulbs last a shorter amount of time so they

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Speaker 1: could sell more. It's just happened. I mean, that's that's

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Speaker 1: very much proof if you're like planned obsolescence and really

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Speaker 1: a thing, Like, there's proof that at one point it

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Speaker 1: was definitely a thing. It was a thing in one

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Speaker 1: of the earliest industries around in the post industrial age,

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Speaker 1: so um so the light bulb cartel kind of it. Definitely.

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Speaker 1: It's not like that just kicked off everything where everybody's like, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's what we're gonna do from now on. It's almost

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Speaker 1: like the impression I got is that this is an

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Speaker 1: independent idea that was just kind of cropped up throughout

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Speaker 1: the course of the twenty century. But the next people

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Speaker 1: that hit upon it, I think, I don't it's entirely

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Speaker 1: possible that these guys were all sharing info, you know,

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Speaker 1: But the lightbulb guys were like, hey, you you car

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Speaker 1: makers are being idiots. Here's what you need to do

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Speaker 1: the same places in the Catskills every summer. That's what

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Speaker 1: I would guess, seeing that young upcoming comedian Henny Young

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Speaker 1: men do bit so. So the the automakers were the

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Speaker 1: first to hit on it next and UM specifically a

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Speaker 1: guy named Alfred P. Sloan who was a groundbreaking early

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Speaker 1: president of General Motors UM, who said, I've got an idea.

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Speaker 1: We could sell way more cars if we just make

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Speaker 1: little updates here there every year to the same car,

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Speaker 1: but just change it out enough so that you want

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Speaker 1: the newer car. It's newer, it's flash year, it's better

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Speaker 1: than the car you own. So maybe after a couple

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Speaker 1: of years somebody will take their car that still works

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Speaker 1: just fine and trade it in for a new one.

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Speaker 1: And he's the guy who came up with that. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's called dynamic obsolescence. And I mean, now we take

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Speaker 1: it for a granted, because that's all you hear about

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Speaker 1: is the new model year. But previous to that, I mean,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to do a show on the early auto industry.

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Speaker 1: I guess they've just made cars and they were called

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Speaker 1: the whatever. And I mean when did they make new

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Speaker 1: ones every five or six seven years when they had

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Speaker 1: a real innimation? Well he had this idea in like

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Speaker 1: the twenties or thirties, so they there weren't They wouldn't

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Speaker 1: have been cars for that many very long yeah, before then,

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Speaker 1: but I think it was just like the Model T

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Speaker 1: or the Model A or the the box with wheels,

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Speaker 1: you know which all of those were right. Uh. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: The actual term, though, planned obsolescence UM, was in a

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Speaker 1: pamphlet for the first time in nineteen thirty two, written

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Speaker 1: by real estate broker named Bernard London. Uh and this

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Speaker 1: pamphlet was called you know it's thirty two. If it's like, uh,

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Speaker 1: the big pamphlet writing days, you don't get enough of

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Speaker 1: those anymore. You really don't see too many pamphlets outside

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Speaker 1: of like a government office or something, right, or if

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Speaker 1: you're in Vegas and it's just got you know, you know,

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Speaker 1: you know what those kind of pamphlets, right, But this

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Speaker 1: was a two and it was called Ending the Depression

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Speaker 1: through Planned Obsolescence. Uh so right there, it's in the title.

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Speaker 1: First time it had ever been used. And this was

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Speaker 1: a plan for for products to include an artificial expiration date.

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Speaker 1: So the idea was, if you're a consumer and you

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Speaker 1: continue to use that product beyond that date, sort of

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Speaker 1: like you know, taking an old pill or drinking old milk,

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Speaker 1: except you would be charged attacks like, hey, you're still

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Speaker 1: using that fridge. It's two years past his date, so

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Speaker 1: you gotta pay a tax on that now, right, And

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Speaker 1: it did not take hold, surprisingly or not surprisingly right,

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Speaker 1: But there's supposedly, from what I saw, there's fifteen copies

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Speaker 1: of that pamphlet known to exist still and they're all

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Speaker 1: in libraries, and there were twenty originally, right exactly. But

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Speaker 1: that Bernard London he had, you know, he had kind

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Speaker 1: of an idea, but it was misplaced. It was in

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Speaker 1: the wrong place. It was like, nobody wants to tax

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Speaker 1: the consumer for using an item they paid for, fair

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Speaker 1: and square. That's just that's not going to be a

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Speaker 1: very popular idea. So he had he was kind of

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Speaker 1: on the right path, but he found a tree and

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Speaker 1: he started barking up it and it was the wrong one,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Yeah, But that was in fact,

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Speaker 1: that same year there were two other guys Roy Sheldon

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Speaker 1: and uh, this is a great name, egmont Errands, and

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Speaker 1: they wrote a book that wasn't too far off that

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Speaker 1: pamphlet called consumer Engineering colon or lease of colon in

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Speaker 1: the title, and technique for Prosperity, and they called it

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Speaker 1: creative waste and just basically flat outsaid we should make

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Speaker 1: things that are less durable because uh, you know, people

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Speaker 1: are going to buy more stuff, right and that yeah,

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Speaker 1: which I mean lays the foundation for the consumer economy

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Speaker 1: that we live in today. Like that's it right there.

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Speaker 1: These guys came up with the basis of it, yeah,

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Speaker 1: And it got me thinking about like when you when

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Speaker 1: you there are places that make really awesome things that

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Speaker 1: are like they're selling point is this is really built

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Speaker 1: to last, whether it's a wallet or you know, a

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Speaker 1: piece of clothing or something. No, there are these you know,

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Speaker 1: there are these high end wallet makers now that are

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Speaker 1: saying like this is the wallet that you can have

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Speaker 1: for sixty years like your father that um. But they

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Speaker 1: often say things like, you know, use military grade fabrics

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Speaker 1: or this or that, and I think that's just like

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Speaker 1: back then they used to use the highest grade and

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Speaker 1: calling a military grade it sounds all fancy, but what

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Speaker 1: the really means is we use stuff like they used

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Speaker 1: to because it just lasts, and now only the military

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Speaker 1: does that kind of thing. You know, Yeah, No, I

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Speaker 1: think you're absolutely right. I mean, that's what That's what

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Speaker 1: Bernard London and Roy Sheldon and eggma errands that the

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Speaker 1: foundation of their ideas, even though they were separate ideas,

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Speaker 1: was that things were made too well back then, and

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Speaker 1: Bernard London's idea was, well, you can just keep making

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Speaker 1: them really well, but you have to say that you

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Speaker 1: can't use it beyond this this date, which wouldn't work.

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Speaker 1: But Roy Sheldon and Egmont Aaron said, well, we could

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Speaker 1: go the opposite way and just make stuff less durable

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Speaker 1: and sell more of it. That's the whole point to

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Speaker 1: stimulate the economy. Because remember both of these were written

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Speaker 1: during the depression, and they their idea was to stimulate

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Speaker 1: the economy by artificially creating repeat customers that otherwise wouldn't

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Speaker 1: exist because the stuff that that you would go by

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Speaker 1: is too durable. If you go buy a hose and

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Speaker 1: that hose is going to last you for the rest

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Speaker 1: of your life, and you're not in a business where

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Speaker 1: you need multiple hoses. You're just a homeowner. You're not

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Speaker 1: in the business, you're a hosemaker. Well, I'm actually referring

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Speaker 1: specifically to a hose that my dad bought from Sears

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Speaker 1: in the sixties. He still had it until the nineties,

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Speaker 1: and it sprung the leak, and Sears used to guarantee

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Speaker 1: everything that they sold for a lifetime. My dad took

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Speaker 1: it back to his Sears and they gave him another

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Speaker 1: hose in the nineties. Right. So, but the idea of

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Speaker 1: a hose lasting thirtysomething years, let alone being replaced when it,

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Speaker 1: you know, for free when it when it breaks like

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Speaker 1: that was that was the problem. Stuff was just made

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Speaker 1: too well. And you can actually go on to like

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Speaker 1: Etsy and eBay and sights like that today, Chuck, And

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Speaker 1: there's like a whole um, a whole like subculture I

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Speaker 1: guess of people who buy vintage appliances that's still work

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Speaker 1: they were they they worked like they did the day

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Speaker 1: you bought them. Like I saw a Sunbeam mixer from

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty and it says like works perfectly well, has

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Speaker 1: a few scuffs on it. That's it from nineteen thirty.

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Speaker 1: That's coming up on a hundred years ago. Yeah, it

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Speaker 1: also weighs two hundred and seventy five pounds and it

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Speaker 1: catches your house on fire, so you'll have to pay

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Speaker 1: a lot of money to have it shipped. But um, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean it's crazy because that was this early planned

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Speaker 1: obsolescence was in the thirties and forties. When we think

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Speaker 1: of that's when they were making great stuff, and like

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Speaker 1: now it's progressed to the point where it's just like,

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Speaker 1: let's just make pure garbage, right, but it won't last

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Speaker 1: a year. The point originally was that that it would

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Speaker 1: stimulate the economy if you could sell the same person

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Speaker 1: stuff multiple times over their life, rather than making something

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Speaker 1: that lasts in generation so that they only have to

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Speaker 1: buy the one hose for their lifetime. Right, Well, your

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Speaker 1: dad has two nicknames now, the herbal Elvis and uh

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Speaker 1: one host Clark. Um, all right, shall we take a break?

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Speaker 1: I think so, all right, let's take a break, and

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Speaker 1: we're gonna come back and talk about a man named

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Speaker 1: Brooks Stevens right after this large ska doble sk as.

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Speaker 1: All right, so this idea is out there. Planned obsolescence. Um,

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Speaker 1: it's been written down. It's a term. It really kind

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Speaker 1: of became more common in the nineteen fifties, even though

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Speaker 1: it was first written about in the early nineteen thirties.

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Speaker 1: And this is where a man named Brooks Stevens enters.

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Speaker 1: He was a Milwaukee industrial designer, and he did a

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Speaker 1: lot of stuff. He worked in the automobile industry, he

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Speaker 1: worked in the appliance industry. UM, and basically his whole

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Speaker 1: jam was no, no, no no, we we need to make

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Speaker 1: things obsolete and not last very long because this is

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Speaker 1: good for industry. Right, Let's go get that bread. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: go get that bread and keep people working, keep people

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Speaker 1: making stuff. Uh. At a nineteen fifty four advertising conference,

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Speaker 1: he gave a speech where he said, quote instilling in

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Speaker 1: the buyer the desire to own something a little newer,

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Speaker 1: a little better, a little sooner than is necessary. End quote. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's right there. Just make it a little crappier, a

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Speaker 1: little crettier, and you'll sell more of them over a

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Speaker 1: long period of time. I can you take the long

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Speaker 1: view of it, and like, if you are looking at

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Speaker 1: it strictly from like an economic sense, like an academic sense,

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Speaker 1: this just makes like total sense. It's perfectly normal and

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Speaker 1: rational and a kind of a good idea. But when

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Speaker 1: you put it into practice, we've found, Um, there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of problems that start to emerge pretty quickly. Uh,

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Speaker 1: And emerged so quickly that Um Brooks Stevens, you know,

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Speaker 1: gave that very famous speech, well famous among industrial designers,

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Speaker 1: but he gave he made that speech in nineteen fifty four.

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Speaker 1: By nineteen sixty six years later, there was a popular

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Speaker 1: book by a guy named Vance Packard called The Waste Bakers,

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Speaker 1: and it was basically about all the problems that come

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Speaker 1: from that kind of mentality that planned obsolescence creates, all

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Speaker 1: the waste associated with, all the unnecessary consumerism, all the

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Speaker 1: keeping up with the joneses that emerges. Like just six

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Speaker 1: years after that speech, so really quickly people started to

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Speaker 1: see the problems with planned obsolescence, like right out of

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Speaker 1: the gate. Yeah, this Vance Packard, I think maybe we

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Speaker 1: could try and do a short stuff on yeah, easily,

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Speaker 1: just kind of reading up on him. He was a

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Speaker 1: sort of a pre Ralph Nader social critic um, and

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Speaker 1: I guess Nader was a little more toward like public safety.

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Speaker 1: But Vance Packard, he wrote a bunch of cool books

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Speaker 1: and essays, one called The Hidden Persuaders that tackled the

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Speaker 1: advertising industry and subliminal advertising and stuff like that. He

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Speaker 1: was like the arch enemy of Edward Burnet's I imagine. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Uh Thato was one called an essay called the Naked Society,

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Speaker 1: which had to do in the nineteen sixties, I think

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Speaker 1: about consumer privacy. Yeah, technol ahead of his time. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And then the last thing he wrote in nine was

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Speaker 1: called the Ultra Rich colin how much is too Much?

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Speaker 1: How much is too much? Yea. So he died a

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Speaker 1: few years later. Like up until the very end, was

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Speaker 1: kind of fighting the good fight for saying, what a

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Speaker 1: you know, what a wasteful, invasive, gross society that we're

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Speaker 1: building here in the United States. Yeah. It was an

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Speaker 1: interesting dude, definitely the kind of author that you know,

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Speaker 1: guys like um, Gladwell and Friedman and all of them started,

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Speaker 1: you know, followed in the footstep stuff, but he he

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Speaker 1: kind of laid the groundwork for that, that kind of

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Speaker 1: reporting on you know, kind of the ugliness of this

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Speaker 1: society that sold to us. I think we should definitely

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Speaker 1: do uum a short stuff on him. Yeah. Okay, some

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Speaker 1: pinky swear. Pinky swear, Okay, Um, your pinky's cold. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if that's soothing to me or frightening. It

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Speaker 1: should be a little frightening. I'm frightened by because it

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Speaker 1: feels sweaty. Guys, I think Josh is dead. My nose

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Speaker 1: just falls off on to the table. God, let me

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Speaker 1: put that back. Problem. Um, The funny thing is, as

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Speaker 1: long as you could keep podcasting out probably like that's fine. Fine, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I like corpse Josh. You buy me like a steel

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Speaker 1: rod to go in my spine for Christmas? Yeah, but

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Speaker 1: I'd have to buy one every couple of years because

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Speaker 1: they don't last like they It's true, they don't last

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Speaker 1: like the US. That's another thing I really really want

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Speaker 1: to say this chuck, because I'm sure too, especially some

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Speaker 1: of our younger listeners. We sound like a couple like

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Speaker 1: they don't make it like they used to. Know, it's

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Speaker 1: proven they don't make things like they used to. It's

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Speaker 1: not just people like pining for the good old days

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Speaker 1: or anything like that. Like there is a definite progression

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Speaker 1: of um, increasing cruddiness among the stuff you buy, and

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Speaker 1: the shortening in the lifespan and durability of the things

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Speaker 1: we buy. It's just happening. Yeah, it's funny when I

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Speaker 1: see stuff on social media about people complaining about their

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Speaker 1: fridge that doesn't work, over this or that, and like,

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Speaker 1: what about the lemon law. I'm always just like, oh,

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Speaker 1: that's cute. I'm sure you're gonna get real far with

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Speaker 1: the lemon law. Although we should look into that for

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Speaker 1: short stuff too, because there is such a thing. I

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Speaker 1: just don't know how, you know, I'm sure we about it.

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Speaker 1: We talked about it before. Maybe we Uh, how do

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Speaker 1: we even did a show years ago? Work? Oh? Man?

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Speaker 1: I hearkened back to that show pretty frequently, like whenever

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Speaker 1: I'm offered an extended warranty and wow, that sounds like

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Speaker 1: a really good deal. What did we say in the

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Speaker 1: extended warranty episode? Oh? Yes, never don't extended warranty. It's

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Speaker 1: never worth it if I remember correctly. Alright, so shall

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Speaker 1: we chat a little bit about some of some of

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Speaker 1: the worst defenders these days. Yeah. First up on the

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Speaker 1: t ball T is Apple. Yeah. Apple is in the

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Speaker 1: news a lot um and it's very much at the

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Speaker 1: center of the um the talk among the skeptics and

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Speaker 1: on the skeptics websites about their evil plan to keep

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Speaker 1: you on their machines every couple of years through you

390
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Speaker 1: know updates that slowed down your phone, which was proven true. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: well there's a class action lawsuit against them for it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so here's what happened. If you live under a rock,

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Speaker 1: Apple got um. They sent out an update. There's a

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Speaker 1: few years ago, and the update was shown and that

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Speaker 1: they admitted that it did slow the phones down, but

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Speaker 1: their whole response was, Hey, this is because the battery stinks.

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Speaker 1: They're like, we're trying to make your battery last longer,

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Speaker 1: so we're slowing some things down in order to give

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Speaker 1: you a better battery life. And then here's what we'll

400
00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:11,359
Speaker 1: do everyone, We're so sorry. We're gonna you can buy

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Speaker 1: a new battery for fifty dollars cheaper, uh for ars

402
00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:19,560
Speaker 1: instead of seventy nine. So they replaced eleven million batteries

403
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Speaker 1: in did they really? I didn't know that. Yeah, up

404
00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:27,920
Speaker 1: from about you know, replaced for ars a piece up

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Speaker 1: from one to two million in an average year. Because

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Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever seen an iPhone, buddy,

407
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:36,720
Speaker 1: but it doesn't have a little switch on the back

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Speaker 1: that you just pop a little thing and put a

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Speaker 1: new battery in. No. No, that's another big part of

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Speaker 1: planning ops as that said, we'll talk about is there

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Speaker 1: is a strict control over the product even after it's purchased. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they want to control it through repair, through everything. Um So,

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Speaker 1: I was looking up on this lawsuit because I didn't

414
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Speaker 1: know where it landed, and I think it's still going on.

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Speaker 1: And the latest article I read was from February that said, basically,

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Speaker 1: Apple is squirreling away money because they're gonna lose this thing.

417
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Speaker 1: And I'm literally setting aside money to pay for this lawsuit.

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Speaker 1: That's so cute for a rainy day. Yeah, they've like

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Speaker 1: opened up a new account. They went down to the bank.

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00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:21,119
Speaker 1: Just call it lawsuit account, right. Um. But here's the

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Speaker 1: thing with Apple. It's not just the update thing. Like

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Speaker 1: anyone who has bought a laptop from them, like me lately,

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Speaker 1: or one of the newer phones, and you're like, oh

424
00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:33,679
Speaker 1: wait a minute, I can't plug like have done since

425
00:24:33,720 --> 00:24:36,520
Speaker 1: I had my Walkman, I can't plug my headphones into

426
00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:39,520
Speaker 1: this thing anymore without buying a little dongle, Or I

427
00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:42,000
Speaker 1: can't plug in a USB port because there is none

428
00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:45,440
Speaker 1: unless I get some little adapter that they also sell, right.

429
00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:51,200
Speaker 1: Um So that's a classic hallmark of um planned obsolescence

430
00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:56,600
Speaker 1: is creating a newer model that is incompatible with older models.

431
00:24:56,600 --> 00:24:58,560
Speaker 1: So if you want to keep using the older model,

432
00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:01,679
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to shell some money one way or another.

433
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:05,960
Speaker 1: Um or even if you buy the newer model, which

434
00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:08,000
Speaker 1: is kind of even bigger slap in the face, you

435
00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:11,199
Speaker 1: have to shell out even more money for additional peripherals

436
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:13,720
Speaker 1: like chargers or headphones or something like that to make

437
00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:19,040
Speaker 1: them compatible. Just making stuff incompatible with older versions, it's

438
00:25:19,119 --> 00:25:22,480
Speaker 1: it's a it's a big part of planned obsolescence. Do

439
00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:25,000
Speaker 1: you know. I wonder how much money they made on

440
00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:28,040
Speaker 1: the little headphone adapter? Oh man, it's ten bucks. Is

441
00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:31,520
Speaker 1: like I've got one, and I'm like, you know, I

442
00:25:31,560 --> 00:25:35,359
Speaker 1: could really use another one of those, because the worst

443
00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:38,399
Speaker 1: thing that can possibly happen to a human being because

444
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:41,800
Speaker 1: they had two sets of headphones, one for like, you know,

445
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,040
Speaker 1: the flight on Delta and then one for your phone

446
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:47,920
Speaker 1: because they have two different ends on them, So I mean,

447
00:25:48,359 --> 00:25:50,240
Speaker 1: to have to keep up with two sets of headphones

448
00:25:50,359 --> 00:25:52,879
Speaker 1: is basically as horrible as it gets. So I'm probably

449
00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:56,720
Speaker 1: just gonna a cave and get another adapter, yeah, or

450
00:25:56,840 --> 00:26:03,360
Speaker 1: just quit ingesting uh culture, Yeah, we'll get a flip phone. Yeah,

451
00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:06,359
Speaker 1: stop watching movies and TV altogether. Yeah, sticking it to

452
00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:11,480
Speaker 1: the man. Uh the other one, other big offender that

453
00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:14,000
Speaker 1: really gets my goat. And I know we are old

454
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:17,720
Speaker 1: guys complaining here, that's fine, But the old and young alike,

455
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:22,000
Speaker 1: I think can all agree that, uh, printer cartridges are

456
00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:27,080
Speaker 1: one of the biggest, most frustrating, wasteful, and environmentally damaging

457
00:26:27,359 --> 00:26:30,600
Speaker 1: scams on the planet. Yeah, which I didn't know about this,

458
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:32,600
Speaker 1: so I've gotta I'm just gonna go ahead and buzz

459
00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:34,840
Speaker 1: them because I'm pretty proud of what they What we

460
00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:39,000
Speaker 1: got at an Epson printer at home, and it has

461
00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:43,080
Speaker 1: like reservoirs that you fill with ink then hold a

462
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:47,119
Speaker 1: ton of ink from like a refill bottle. And um,

463
00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:51,240
Speaker 1: there's no cartridges involved or anything like that. The bottles

464
00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:53,520
Speaker 1: that you refill it from are fully recyclable. It's just

465
00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:57,480
Speaker 1: is this good. Um. Before we had cartridges, but they

466
00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 1: didn't have this particular UM component, which is a smart

467
00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:03,680
Speaker 1: ship I had. So what I'm trying to say is,

468
00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:05,879
Speaker 1: I had no idea this existed until I researched this.

469
00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:10,159
Speaker 1: But some printers, ink jet laser printers, home printers, the

470
00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:14,240
Speaker 1: cartridges have a little chip on them, which is I

471
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:16,080
Speaker 1: guess what you pull the tape off of when you

472
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:19,320
Speaker 1: loaded into the printer like a new cartridge, and it

473
00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:22,720
Speaker 1: actually talks to the printer and says, here's how much ink.

474
00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:26,000
Speaker 1: I have laughed, what what are you gonna do this Friday? Oh? Yeah,

475
00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:28,840
Speaker 1: oh wait, I got another job coming and excuse me. Um.

476
00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:32,239
Speaker 1: And then eventually the ink level gets down to a

477
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:35,399
Speaker 1: certain amount where the smart ship tells the printer, no

478
00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:39,000
Speaker 1: more printing. They've reached the preset amount, not the amount

479
00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:42,600
Speaker 1: where they've actually run out of ink, but the amount

480
00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 1: that the company is determined as enough you can use.

481
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:49,000
Speaker 1: You can go buy another cartridge now. And these cartridges also,

482
00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:53,120
Speaker 1: the smart chips prevent you from using other companies cheaper

483
00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:57,359
Speaker 1: knockoff cartridges because the chips won't communicate with the printer.

484
00:27:57,480 --> 00:27:59,600
Speaker 1: So it's like the printers and know the cartridge is there,

485
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:02,840
Speaker 1: and you can't refill them. They're designed not to be refiled,

486
00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:05,119
Speaker 1: so they have to be thrown away and you have

487
00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:07,919
Speaker 1: to go buy another cartridge. Yeah, And I've had that

488
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:11,440
Speaker 1: happened before in the past, where I get down to, uh,

489
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:14,560
Speaker 1: if I'm printing something out, just like simple black text

490
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:16,760
Speaker 1: and it starts to come out a little brown and

491
00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:19,520
Speaker 1: then it just stops. I'm like, I'm okay, if it's

492
00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:22,760
Speaker 1: a little brown, right, I decide what's a llegible printer?

493
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:28,000
Speaker 1: I know, Uh so that's there are at the very

494
00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:29,680
Speaker 1: least I can tell you EPs and makes a printer

495
00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:31,919
Speaker 1: out there that has reservoirs that you can refill with

496
00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:35,960
Speaker 1: bottles and no smartships. Okay, give me some money. Ups.

497
00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:40,520
Speaker 1: And the auto industry is, you know, still kind of

498
00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:43,640
Speaker 1: doing the same thing that they started so many years ago,

499
00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:48,240
Speaker 1: which is, uh, discontinuing parts um that could keep cars

500
00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:52,880
Speaker 1: running for a longer time, making those minor cosmetic changes

501
00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:56,840
Speaker 1: for that new model year, retiring models of cars that

502
00:28:56,880 --> 00:29:00,400
Speaker 1: are really really popular, um, just because they want to

503
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:02,880
Speaker 1: bring out something new and make it harder to fix

504
00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 1: your old car, so repairs Chuck, Like we kind of

505
00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:10,560
Speaker 1: teased earlier. That's a huge part of planned obsolescence. Like,

506
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:14,640
Speaker 1: if you're the company that controls the market on your

507
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:20,280
Speaker 1: parts and who can repair your products with those parts,

508
00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:23,360
Speaker 1: you have a You've you're basically saying like, I can

509
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:25,560
Speaker 1: see this product through after I sell it to the

510
00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:31,800
Speaker 1: customer to ensure that it experiences just that artificially short lifetime. Yeah,

511
00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:33,880
Speaker 1: and that the thing that's so maddening about this is

512
00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:37,800
Speaker 1: you can just hear it in the meeting rooms. You

513
00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:41,440
Speaker 1: know that that like, And here's the best thing, guys.

514
00:29:42,320 --> 00:29:45,960
Speaker 1: We control the parts, we control the repair, like. The

515
00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:49,440
Speaker 1: only thing we don't control is the shipping. And maybe

516
00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:52,360
Speaker 1: we can make some deal with FedEx on that right

517
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:54,480
Speaker 1: to get a little kick back exactly. I don't know

518
00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:56,480
Speaker 1: if that really happens. I'm just making it up. Probably

519
00:29:56,520 --> 00:30:00,120
Speaker 1: does now I've got my tinfoil hat on, right, But

520
00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:02,360
Speaker 1: it's you can just hear it in the meeting rooms.

521
00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:06,400
Speaker 1: And that's what's so frustrating is it's it's just this ouze,

522
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:10,320
Speaker 1: steady ooze of greed with no regard for the consumer

523
00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:13,760
Speaker 1: at all. Right, And and just to lay it out basically,

524
00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:18,760
Speaker 1: you know, in explicit terms, Um, if you're a company

525
00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:21,520
Speaker 1: and you make a product, you can control that product

526
00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:24,160
Speaker 1: after you sell it by saying, if you take this product,

527
00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:27,320
Speaker 1: if this product breaks and you take it anywhere but

528
00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:30,040
Speaker 1: where we say you can say, like to the Apple

529
00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:35,760
Speaker 1: store or an authorized repair shop. Um, you avoided the warranty,

530
00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:38,120
Speaker 1: so there's no warranty after that you just you just

531
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:41,560
Speaker 1: avoided it um And by doing that, they can say

532
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:44,360
Speaker 1: they control what parts are used, which means that they

533
00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:46,960
Speaker 1: can be the only people who manufacture the parts that

534
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:49,720
Speaker 1: are used. And then you say can I get the

535
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:51,720
Speaker 1: six under warranty through you? Then they're like, oh, we

536
00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:56,320
Speaker 1: don't cover that underworld. They're like warranty more on. So

537
00:30:56,480 --> 00:31:00,880
Speaker 1: the with the repair parts controlled, they can they can

538
00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:03,600
Speaker 1: raise the price or lower the price. They can um

539
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:06,560
Speaker 1: adjust however they want to make it so that it's

540
00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:09,800
Speaker 1: actually as expensive to repair as it is to just

541
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:13,160
Speaker 1: buy another one or close to it, to just basically

542
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:15,240
Speaker 1: nudge you to as well just throw this one away

543
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:18,960
Speaker 1: and get get the newer model. Or they can also

544
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:21,200
Speaker 1: this is a really big one, especially also in the

545
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:26,120
Speaker 1: auto industry, they can they can stop making those parts

546
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:29,280
Speaker 1: which are the only parts that you can use to repair.

547
00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:33,560
Speaker 1: So it ultimately eventually becomes impossible to repair that thing

548
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:37,120
Speaker 1: because all the parts, the finite amount of parts that

549
00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:39,760
Speaker 1: were ever produced to repair them are all used up.

550
00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:42,840
Speaker 1: There's no more parts available. Go buy the newer model.

551
00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:46,000
Speaker 1: Did you see that used ugo the the new used

552
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:50,160
Speaker 1: you Go? No, someone put a you Go on eBay

553
00:31:50,320 --> 00:31:54,680
Speaker 1: that had eight miles on it and had been garaged

554
00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:58,360
Speaker 1: since it was you know, since or whatever. How much

555
00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:01,240
Speaker 1: do they want for nine end is what it sold for,

556
00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:06,280
Speaker 1: which you know it's nine grand plus. You got to

557
00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:08,800
Speaker 1: get that thing going again. Just it's been sitting there

558
00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:11,840
Speaker 1: for that many years. It's clearly not road ready, but

559
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:14,240
Speaker 1: it was cherry, And I think it's kind of funny

560
00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:19,000
Speaker 1: that some no doubt tech bro with a little too

561
00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:23,440
Speaker 1: much money wanted to the most ironic car in San Francisco.

562
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 1: That is as ironic as a kiss, for sure. Um.

563
00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:29,440
Speaker 1: Every time I hear about Hugos Chuck, I'm I'm reminded

564
00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:33,240
Speaker 1: of remember that Saturday Night Live commercial for the Adobe. No,

565
00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:35,960
Speaker 1: it was like the first car under a thousand dollars

566
00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:39,520
Speaker 1: made clay, So when you got an Defender better you

567
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:41,600
Speaker 1: just pour water on it and mold it back into

568
00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:44,880
Speaker 1: show if only. Yeah, that was from like the Phil

569
00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:49,240
Speaker 1: Hartman era. That's the opposite of planned obsolescence. It is. Um.

570
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:53,520
Speaker 1: Clothing is sort of the same deal. They make UM

571
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:55,840
Speaker 1: And again there are some clothing companies, and I think

572
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:59,080
Speaker 1: more than ever now in recent years, well not more

573
00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:01,920
Speaker 1: than ever, but more in then in the last twenty years,

574
00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:05,200
Speaker 1: there are companies that are making really well made clothes,

575
00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:08,920
Speaker 1: but they're you know, they're not cheap. There are many

576
00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:13,600
Speaker 1: many more companies, huge, huge stores and big brands that

577
00:33:13,640 --> 00:33:17,640
Speaker 1: are just pumping out cheap clothes because you're like, first

578
00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 1: of all, the styles change, So why do you want

579
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:21,800
Speaker 1: something You don't want anything that's gonna last more than

580
00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:25,200
Speaker 1: a year or two anyway, Um, but my beef, and

581
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:27,239
Speaker 1: we're calling out a lot of brands, you might as

582
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:30,000
Speaker 1: well just keep it going. But when I was younger,

583
00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:32,320
Speaker 1: you could buy a pair of Levi's and have those

584
00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:36,240
Speaker 1: for a long, long long time. Yeah, no, Russian would

585
00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:39,960
Speaker 1: trade you a you go for him? Yeah, exactly. Uh.

586
00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:42,920
Speaker 1: And now like I had a pair of Levi's for

587
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:46,840
Speaker 1: probably five months before I got a big really in them.

588
00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:52,440
Speaker 1: And that's sad. It's sad. Levi Strauss rolled over in

589
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:54,880
Speaker 1: his grave on that day, I know, man, because that

590
00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:56,720
Speaker 1: that was the thing. It's just like these things are

591
00:33:56,760 --> 00:33:59,800
Speaker 1: tough as leather that last you so long, Like there's

592
00:33:59,800 --> 00:34:04,760
Speaker 1: nothing better than inheriting dad's old levies and it's just like,

593
00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:07,920
Speaker 1: you know, or five months. Yeah, that's that's pretty sad,

594
00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:10,960
Speaker 1: because here a middle ground. Can I get five years? Yeah?

595
00:34:11,040 --> 00:34:13,480
Speaker 1: Five years would be pretty good for some genes. Take it.

596
00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:16,360
Speaker 1: I always put um, although I do less than I

597
00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:18,880
Speaker 1: did before, But my jeans would always wear out, or

598
00:34:18,960 --> 00:34:21,719
Speaker 1: my two thighs, my big fat thighs rubbed together. Sure,

599
00:34:21,800 --> 00:34:24,399
Speaker 1: that's what would go first. But then you can hide

600
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:26,600
Speaker 1: that for a little while until one day you can't.

601
00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:29,239
Speaker 1: You just hope that that day comes and you're not

602
00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:31,960
Speaker 1: in public. I can a patch these because they're still comfortable.

603
00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:34,920
Speaker 1: But um, you shouldn't have to chuck. You shouldn't have to.

604
00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:39,000
Speaker 1: That's COMI talk. I'm gonna patch these. Uh you want

605
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:42,080
Speaker 1: to know another racket? Yeah? Yes? Or should we take

606
00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:45,799
Speaker 1: a break and talk about it. We could take a

607
00:34:45,800 --> 00:34:48,120
Speaker 1: break if you want, or we can wait. Do you

608
00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:50,800
Speaker 1: want to wait? Yeah, we'll go. We'll finish the rackets.

609
00:34:50,920 --> 00:34:52,640
Speaker 1: This is fun, by the way, I'm having fun, like

610
00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:55,840
Speaker 1: complaining about how stuff doesn't last like I used to.

611
00:34:56,080 --> 00:35:00,440
Speaker 1: How about the college textbook racket? Okay, hey, this is

612
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:02,960
Speaker 1: a new edition from the previous year. Oh what's different?

613
00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:07,239
Speaker 1: The page numbers right, so by the new one yea,

614
00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:10,560
Speaker 1: not the used one? Yeah? Which is I mean, like,

615
00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:12,680
Speaker 1: if you're trying to follow along in class, that's kind

616
00:35:12,719 --> 00:35:15,879
Speaker 1: of maddening because the information is usually not that much,

617
00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:19,200
Speaker 1: but it's enough to just throw everything off right, Whereas

618
00:35:19,239 --> 00:35:21,040
Speaker 1: they if they just put these things as like a

619
00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:24,400
Speaker 1: supplement or an appendix of something in back, then you

620
00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:27,840
Speaker 1: could just or even to sell the additional stuff separately.

621
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:31,520
Speaker 1: You could be a lot better. Yeah, this is so

622
00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 1: the little pamphlet for and probably make money fifteen copies.

623
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:39,920
Speaker 1: How about the toy industry, So the toy industry is

624
00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:43,360
Speaker 1: frequently guilty. Um, and this isn't the case across the board,

625
00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:47,880
Speaker 1: but it kinda is of a specific subcategory of planned

626
00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:51,520
Speaker 1: obsolescence called contrived durability. And there's not the garbage product.

627
00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:54,359
Speaker 1: But basically the toy industry isn't the only one that

628
00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:55,759
Speaker 1: that does it, but they're the ones that come to

629
00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:58,279
Speaker 1: mind when you talk about this. And this is purposefully

630
00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:02,719
Speaker 1: using in year your parts that just aren't going to

631
00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:06,520
Speaker 1: last for very long at all, especially the functioning parts

632
00:36:06,520 --> 00:36:08,840
Speaker 1: of stuff that moves or where the most stress is.

633
00:36:09,239 --> 00:36:13,040
Speaker 1: Anybody who's ever gotten a switch blade comb and spent

634
00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:15,600
Speaker 1: half an hour just opening it and closing it, opening

635
00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:17,640
Speaker 1: it and closing it, and then it breaks on the

636
00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:21,360
Speaker 1: fiftieth time, that comb was most likely made through a

637
00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:25,160
Speaker 1: process of contrived or ability, right, Um, and it's a

638
00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:27,720
Speaker 1: big problem. Part of the problem. Part of the problem

639
00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:31,680
Speaker 1: is that's another really good example of a type of

640
00:36:31,719 --> 00:36:35,759
Speaker 1: item that is just are you going to take a

641
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:38,640
Speaker 1: switch blade comb into the switch blade comb repair shop?

642
00:36:39,600 --> 00:36:41,640
Speaker 1: And if you if you did, how much would they

643
00:36:41,719 --> 00:36:44,520
Speaker 1: charge you? Would it be any more than you paid,

644
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,520
Speaker 1: you know for like the three ping pong balls that

645
00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:50,359
Speaker 1: you managed to get into like a goldfish bowl where

646
00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:54,279
Speaker 1: you won the switch blade come from? I don't think so, right,

647
00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:56,880
Speaker 1: And actually we'll talk a little bit about some of

648
00:36:56,920 --> 00:36:59,200
Speaker 1: the problems after this break here in a second. But

649
00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:07,120
Speaker 1: an early early shout to the death of the repair person. Yeah,

650
00:37:07,239 --> 00:37:09,759
Speaker 1: and you know, yeah, there are still some of those things,

651
00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:12,440
Speaker 1: but like try and find a TV repair shop near

652
00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:16,520
Speaker 1: you there, Well, yeah, try to find one that's open too,

653
00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:19,000
Speaker 1: is the other thing. And you can still find them

654
00:37:19,040 --> 00:37:22,759
Speaker 1: in any given large city, but it's it's not like

655
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:25,120
Speaker 1: it used to be where it was just like, oh,

656
00:37:25,239 --> 00:37:29,520
Speaker 1: in any downtown there's a locksmith, there's a tailor, there's

657
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:34,080
Speaker 1: a TV repaired person, uh, and or any kind of

658
00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:39,400
Speaker 1: repair shop. Um. Yeah, they are very very few and

659
00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:43,440
Speaker 1: far between, but that maybe changing is we'll see, all right,

660
00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:47,120
Speaker 1: let's take that break, Okay, Thank goodness, I had a

661
00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:49,360
Speaker 1: lot of anxiety building up because I knew that break

662
00:37:49,440 --> 00:38:16,000
Speaker 1: was looming. Ski as sks Alright, Chuck. So, I feel

663
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:18,680
Speaker 1: like we've kind of hit upon the idea that planned

664
00:38:18,719 --> 00:38:22,680
Speaker 1: obsolescence can be problematic. But let's talk specifically about the

665
00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:27,239
Speaker 1: problems it does produce, right, Yeah, I mean one of

666
00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:28,719
Speaker 1: the big Well, first of all, let's saw out some

667
00:38:28,760 --> 00:38:32,319
Speaker 1: stats just so people know we're not just being angry. Uh.

668
00:38:32,480 --> 00:38:34,359
Speaker 1: There was a study about four years ago in two

669
00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:39,839
Speaker 1: thousand fifteen by company in Germany, the Uko Institute UM

670
00:38:40,040 --> 00:38:42,200
Speaker 1: no e on the end of institute, which is so

671
00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:47,520
Speaker 1: German looking really is its institute otherwise um They found

672
00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:51,719
Speaker 1: obsolescence was on the rise. Percentage of electrical and electronic

673
00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:55,919
Speaker 1: products sold that were replaced because they broke within five

674
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:58,640
Speaker 1: years rose from three and a half percent in two

675
00:38:58,640 --> 00:39:02,880
Speaker 1: thousand four, two eight point three and two thousand twelve.

676
00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:06,480
Speaker 1: And then household appliances, which is one of the big

677
00:39:06,520 --> 00:39:09,880
Speaker 1: gripes for people because those are high dollar items that

678
00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:12,919
Speaker 1: you want to last, you know, fifteen years. UM large

679
00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:16,799
Speaker 1: household appliances had to be replaced within five years grew

680
00:39:16,840 --> 00:39:22,080
Speaker 1: from seven percent to like doubled between two thousand and

681
00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:26,759
Speaker 1: four and two, and like it's you I've this is

682
00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:29,719
Speaker 1: a really rare study. Most of the evidence about this

683
00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:32,560
Speaker 1: stuff is anecdotal. Like if you ever get your hands

684
00:39:32,600 --> 00:39:35,799
Speaker 1: on an appliance repair guy um who comes out, they

685
00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:40,680
Speaker 1: will talk ad nauseum about how they literally don't make

686
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:43,799
Speaker 1: things like they used to and that the lifespan is

687
00:39:43,840 --> 00:39:47,680
Speaker 1: like two to three years, five years if you're lucky, um,

688
00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:50,680
Speaker 1: But prices are still really high like it used to be. Like, Okay,

689
00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:54,080
Speaker 1: I'm gonna shell out some money for um a really

690
00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:57,560
Speaker 1: good fridge and you could tell basically by the price

691
00:39:57,560 --> 00:39:59,479
Speaker 1: of the fridge how long it was gonna last that

692
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:02,920
Speaker 1: that did a decade or two ago. You can still

693
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:05,759
Speaker 1: pay a significant amount of money for a fridge that

694
00:40:05,800 --> 00:40:09,600
Speaker 1: has like a one year warranty and it's gonna last

695
00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:12,440
Speaker 1: three to five years, even though you spend a significant

696
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:15,239
Speaker 1: amount of money. It's crazy. Um. Sometimes are as a

697
00:40:15,280 --> 00:40:17,360
Speaker 1: plan to repair, people get specific to I don't know

698
00:40:17,400 --> 00:40:20,440
Speaker 1: if you've ever had this happen where they say they

699
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:22,399
Speaker 1: don't just say it like oh, these things are junk. Now,

700
00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:24,759
Speaker 1: they'll say like, oh, you know, what they started doing.

701
00:40:24,760 --> 00:40:27,560
Speaker 1: It's four years ago. They started making this part out

702
00:40:27,600 --> 00:40:31,120
Speaker 1: of plastic, and I'd see the same repair over and

703
00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:34,880
Speaker 1: over and over now, right, And and it costs X

704
00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:37,120
Speaker 1: amount for them to even come out and diagnose the

705
00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:40,440
Speaker 1: problem X amount to put in the new part, and

706
00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:42,400
Speaker 1: then you also have to pay for the part. And

707
00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:45,000
Speaker 1: depending on the appliance, I mean, like if it's a

708
00:40:45,280 --> 00:40:48,919
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred or two thousand dollar refrigerator, you know, five

709
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,680
Speaker 1: hundred bucks might be worth it rather than replacing it.

710
00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:54,719
Speaker 1: But you're fifteen hundred dollar refrigerator just became a two

711
00:40:54,760 --> 00:40:59,600
Speaker 1: thousand dollar refrigerator like eighteen months later, right, Um, So

712
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:01,640
Speaker 1: that's are to the problem is the cost of repair

713
00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:04,000
Speaker 1: when it is available can be a problem. But if

714
00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:06,839
Speaker 1: your refrigerator does manage the last five years and they

715
00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:11,719
Speaker 1: stopped making replacement parts for it four years. After four years, you're, um,

716
00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:14,439
Speaker 1: you're out of luck after five years because you can't

717
00:41:14,480 --> 00:41:17,080
Speaker 1: repair it anymore. Like we talked about, Yeah, I had

718
00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:21,000
Speaker 1: a we had a dishwasher that um broke a lot

719
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:24,880
Speaker 1: from the first year that we had it, and it

720
00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:27,160
Speaker 1: got to that point where I kept paying to repair

721
00:41:27,239 --> 00:41:31,200
Speaker 1: it and getting angrier, and you know, Emily was eventually like,

722
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:32,719
Speaker 1: neither one of us are like, oh, just get the

723
00:41:32,760 --> 00:41:35,920
Speaker 1: new one. She was like, dude, we're spending more like

724
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:38,160
Speaker 1: we could have bought the new one for what we're

725
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:42,200
Speaker 1: spending on repairs because you're being stubborn about saying this

726
00:41:42,239 --> 00:41:44,759
Speaker 1: thing should last longer. But you get in that sort

727
00:41:44,800 --> 00:41:46,880
Speaker 1: of conundrum where you like, you don't know what the

728
00:41:46,960 --> 00:41:50,560
Speaker 1: right thing to do is. Yeah, yeah, and eventually, like,

729
00:41:50,680 --> 00:41:54,400
Speaker 1: just about anybody's gonna be like, fine, I'm I've spent

730
00:41:54,480 --> 00:41:56,759
Speaker 1: more money than it would have cost her a place. Yeah,

731
00:41:56,800 --> 00:42:00,279
Speaker 1: somebody's everybody's gonna cry uncle eventually, you know. I think

732
00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:02,560
Speaker 1: it's just some some people do it faster than others,

733
00:42:02,600 --> 00:42:05,919
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah. One of the other things with plan

734
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:08,960
Speaker 1: obsolescence is a company. Can you know, it's very rare

735
00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:12,160
Speaker 1: that a company is just that company. Usually they're owned

736
00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:15,719
Speaker 1: by some huge uber company that owns many of that

737
00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:19,880
Speaker 1: company's that brand's rivals. Yeah, so you can just you know,

738
00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:23,160
Speaker 1: if something gets a bad rep you can just retire

739
00:42:23,200 --> 00:42:26,080
Speaker 1: that brand and slap a new name on it, and

740
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:27,920
Speaker 1: it's the kind of the same thing. So you you

741
00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:30,120
Speaker 1: don't know, you don't know anymore if it's a good

742
00:42:30,160 --> 00:42:32,319
Speaker 1: or a bad brand, Right, And if you just have

743
00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:34,640
Speaker 1: a couple of mega brands and they're all doing the

744
00:42:34,719 --> 00:42:37,359
Speaker 1: same thing with their multiple brands that they all own

745
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:40,480
Speaker 1: and that which is they're just all kind of making

746
00:42:40,480 --> 00:42:43,880
Speaker 1: crud that last maybe three to five years, then that

747
00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:47,640
Speaker 1: means that there's actually technically no bad brand. They're all

748
00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:50,959
Speaker 1: bad brands because there's also no good brand either, um,

749
00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:52,920
Speaker 1: and they just trade on these brand names that you

750
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:56,400
Speaker 1: were raised to hear from your parents, are from repairman

751
00:42:56,520 --> 00:42:59,200
Speaker 1: or whatever, that that's a good brand, but this brand

752
00:42:59,239 --> 00:43:01,080
Speaker 1: is not any good And then you have like a

753
00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:04,320
Speaker 1: bad experience with that brand, so you switch to another brand.

754
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:07,879
Speaker 1: But there's a pretty good chance that those same those

755
00:43:07,880 --> 00:43:10,560
Speaker 1: two brands are still owned by the same company to

756
00:43:10,600 --> 00:43:15,439
Speaker 1: whom it's all the same. You're still giving them the money. Ultimately, Yeah,

757
00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:18,480
Speaker 1: I uh, I'm sorry. This is filled with so many

758
00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:23,359
Speaker 1: anecdotal stories, but I was TV shopping recently and there

759
00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:26,000
Speaker 1: was a TV that, uh, seemed like a really good

760
00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:28,240
Speaker 1: deal and it got good ratings on all the places.

761
00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:32,160
Speaker 1: But then you start reading the customer experience and like

762
00:43:32,239 --> 00:43:34,200
Speaker 1: a lot of people were saying, this has a banding

763
00:43:34,200 --> 00:43:38,000
Speaker 1: issue where you can see like lines on the screen

764
00:43:38,040 --> 00:43:41,359
Speaker 1: when the screen is darker and stuff like that. Oh yeah, yeah.

765
00:43:41,800 --> 00:43:45,480
Speaker 1: It was like ubiquitous. It was all over the place,

766
00:43:45,480 --> 00:43:48,520
Speaker 1: and these reviews and every single one of them, the

767
00:43:48,560 --> 00:43:52,120
Speaker 1: manufacturer would reply and say, boy, we're so sorry you

768
00:43:52,160 --> 00:43:55,719
Speaker 1: have this experience. We've never heard of this, and it's uh,

769
00:43:56,000 --> 00:44:00,560
Speaker 1: certainly um an outlier so to get into uch with us,

770
00:44:01,040 --> 00:44:03,160
Speaker 1: and it's just so maddening. It's like, no, man, it's

771
00:44:03,200 --> 00:44:06,880
Speaker 1: like of these reviews say this, and I say that

772
00:44:06,960 --> 00:44:09,320
Speaker 1: sometimes when I'm when I have to call about something

773
00:44:09,360 --> 00:44:12,400
Speaker 1: like that, I'm like, man, I know, it's not like

774
00:44:12,520 --> 00:44:15,000
Speaker 1: I'm not the only person this is happening to. Is

775
00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:17,719
Speaker 1: all over the internet, and there's like, well, um, you know,

776
00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:21,799
Speaker 1: we're not allowed to share stuff like that, sir, I

777
00:44:21,840 --> 00:44:24,480
Speaker 1: have to say in my experience, so, Chuck, one thing

778
00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:27,320
Speaker 1: that has gotten better over the last couple of decades

779
00:44:27,480 --> 00:44:30,480
Speaker 1: is customer service. Do you think Yeah, I think for

780
00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:35,520
Speaker 1: the average person, the the companies want to please customers

781
00:44:35,640 --> 00:44:39,439
Speaker 1: enough that they make the experience of dealing with them

782
00:44:39,480 --> 00:44:43,359
Speaker 1: better than it was before. I think, how boy, I'm

783
00:44:43,360 --> 00:44:45,440
Speaker 1: gonna have to think about that. Okay, think about it.

784
00:44:45,640 --> 00:44:48,120
Speaker 1: Maybe some companies I've had the experience with some that

785
00:44:48,160 --> 00:44:50,880
Speaker 1: are so big that you get the feeling that like

786
00:44:51,239 --> 00:44:55,959
Speaker 1: they think it costs more to give a hoot, Right, Yeah,

787
00:44:56,000 --> 00:44:58,040
Speaker 1: I think that's definitely true out there, But there's so

788
00:44:58,080 --> 00:45:01,719
Speaker 1: many Like I think smaller company and tech startups come

789
00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:04,919
Speaker 1: from this place of like, we treat the customer really well,

790
00:45:04,960 --> 00:45:07,479
Speaker 1: that's just what we do. It just seems to be

791
00:45:07,560 --> 00:45:10,600
Speaker 1: more than there was before, whereas before it seems like

792
00:45:10,640 --> 00:45:12,719
Speaker 1: it was all big companies that you had to deal with,

793
00:45:12,760 --> 00:45:15,160
Speaker 1: and they all had terrible customer service. I think the

794
00:45:15,280 --> 00:45:18,960
Speaker 1: nineties were like the the zenith of bad customer service

795
00:45:19,040 --> 00:45:23,160
Speaker 1: if if I'm not mistaken, maybe so so. So there's

796
00:45:23,160 --> 00:45:26,279
Speaker 1: a really important point that we're kind of dancing around here, right,

797
00:45:26,719 --> 00:45:30,680
Speaker 1: Like you know of large appliances breaking within five years

798
00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:34,399
Speaker 1: and having to be replaced, like, um, eight point three

799
00:45:34,480 --> 00:45:39,239
Speaker 1: percent of of smaller electronics are all electronics. Um, those

800
00:45:39,280 --> 00:45:42,080
Speaker 1: things being thrown out. It doesn't sound like that much,

801
00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:45,800
Speaker 1: but when you actually translated into numbers, you're talking about

802
00:45:46,040 --> 00:45:50,520
Speaker 1: millions of things, of items of products that are being

803
00:45:50,560 --> 00:45:54,520
Speaker 1: thrown away because they broke. And the vast majority of

804
00:45:54,560 --> 00:45:58,000
Speaker 1: those things are just like I said, thrown away. They're

805
00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:01,320
Speaker 1: not recycled. I think in the United States six percent

806
00:46:02,080 --> 00:46:07,239
Speaker 1: of small appliances are recycled, which is a paltry amount um.

807
00:46:07,280 --> 00:46:10,120
Speaker 1: That means the rest just going to landfill. Yeah, and

808
00:46:10,239 --> 00:46:13,760
Speaker 1: it's especially egregious because not only is all this stuff

809
00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:17,120
Speaker 1: getting tossed, but e waste or some of the biggest

810
00:46:17,120 --> 00:46:22,680
Speaker 1: offenders as far as environmental damage. So you've got three

811
00:46:22,880 --> 00:46:26,480
Speaker 1: d and fifty million in cartridges in the United States

812
00:46:26,520 --> 00:46:30,680
Speaker 1: tossed and landfills every year, you know, three forty eight

813
00:46:30,680 --> 00:46:33,640
Speaker 1: million of which aren't even empty, right because those smart

814
00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:37,799
Speaker 1: ships you've got, you know, uh, refrigerators being thrown out.

815
00:46:37,920 --> 00:46:40,120
Speaker 1: We did get a new refrigerator a couple of years ago,

816
00:46:40,200 --> 00:46:42,960
Speaker 1: even though an old one that we bought used was

817
00:46:43,000 --> 00:46:45,600
Speaker 1: still working. It was kind of a workhorse, but we

818
00:46:45,680 --> 00:46:47,840
Speaker 1: sold it and I was like, you know, sold it

819
00:46:47,880 --> 00:46:50,200
Speaker 1: really cheap. It was like, I bought this thing, used,

820
00:46:50,320 --> 00:46:53,440
Speaker 1: it lasted us ten years without problems. Like, so someone's

821
00:46:53,440 --> 00:46:58,560
Speaker 1: getting a good old workhorse here for a couple hundred bucks.

822
00:46:58,640 --> 00:47:01,239
Speaker 1: So you know, we try and recycle or stuff or

823
00:47:01,239 --> 00:47:03,719
Speaker 1: sell it or donate it these days, or at least

824
00:47:03,719 --> 00:47:07,480
Speaker 1: set it on fire so it's not somebody else's problem.

825
00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:10,080
Speaker 1: The good news is, though I don't want this to

826
00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:12,279
Speaker 1: all be poopoo, is there are places in the world

827
00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:16,320
Speaker 1: that are working on this and trying to change things. Um.

828
00:47:16,320 --> 00:47:19,040
Speaker 1: Not here in the United States, of course, but in

829
00:47:19,080 --> 00:47:22,680
Speaker 1: Europe they are working on creating some standards. There's a

830
00:47:22,719 --> 00:47:27,360
Speaker 1: program called Eco Design Directive, which would basically open up

831
00:47:27,400 --> 00:47:31,719
Speaker 1: regulation of industry based on you know, they're what they're

832
00:47:31,719 --> 00:47:34,279
Speaker 1: trying to do is set new standards for durability and

833
00:47:34,320 --> 00:47:37,520
Speaker 1: repair ability and like make it the law, right, yeah,

834
00:47:37,560 --> 00:47:41,160
Speaker 1: like they're they're Um, the resource efficiency is what they're calling,

835
00:47:41,200 --> 00:47:43,560
Speaker 1: Like you have energy efficiency, like how much water does

836
00:47:43,600 --> 00:47:47,120
Speaker 1: that do? Sacer use? Um? This is how long does

837
00:47:47,160 --> 00:47:50,200
Speaker 1: this thing last? Put it on the label, right exactly,

838
00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:53,680
Speaker 1: kind of like that Bernard London's idea, but rather than

839
00:47:53,680 --> 00:47:55,840
Speaker 1: it being an expiration date to where you start to

840
00:47:55,880 --> 00:47:58,200
Speaker 1: get charged for using it beyond that date, this is,

841
00:47:58,440 --> 00:48:00,359
Speaker 1: oh well, this one's gonna last five years. This one

842
00:48:00,360 --> 00:48:02,040
Speaker 1: says the last seven I'm gonna go with the seven

843
00:48:02,120 --> 00:48:05,480
Speaker 1: year one right now. And because of the resources these

844
00:48:05,480 --> 00:48:08,480
Speaker 1: things use, the seven year one is more efficient by

845
00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:11,080
Speaker 1: definition than the five year one. And at least you

846
00:48:11,120 --> 00:48:14,960
Speaker 1: can make an informed choice as a consumer, Uh, here

847
00:48:14,960 --> 00:48:17,200
Speaker 1: in the States. Like I said that, the federal government

848
00:48:17,200 --> 00:48:20,640
Speaker 1: isn't doing anything, but when it comes to the States,

849
00:48:21,120 --> 00:48:24,000
Speaker 1: there are some groups. There's one movement called right to

850
00:48:24,040 --> 00:48:27,280
Speaker 1: Repair started in the UK and is now catching hold

851
00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:30,480
Speaker 1: I think in two thousand eighteen or eighteen states that

852
00:48:30,560 --> 00:48:34,320
Speaker 1: introduced right to repair bills UM, some of which have

853
00:48:34,520 --> 00:48:37,960
Speaker 1: taken hold, some of which haven't. But UM it basically

854
00:48:38,040 --> 00:48:42,000
Speaker 1: requires companies to make it possible to repair their devices

855
00:48:42,080 --> 00:48:44,120
Speaker 1: on their own or take it to a repair mom

856
00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:48,000
Speaker 1: and pop repair shop and not have like the warranty avoided. Yeah,

857
00:48:48,040 --> 00:48:50,360
Speaker 1: these these laws all kind of you know, they're different,

858
00:48:50,360 --> 00:48:53,960
Speaker 1: but they have in common the idea that, Okay, if

859
00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:56,000
Speaker 1: you guys are gonna build junk, at least make it

860
00:48:56,040 --> 00:48:59,200
Speaker 1: easier for them to be repaired, like design them so

861
00:48:59,239 --> 00:49:02,440
Speaker 1: a customer can repair them themselves or take them to

862
00:49:02,600 --> 00:49:06,440
Speaker 1: an unauthorized repair shop. And those repair shops should be

863
00:49:06,520 --> 00:49:08,839
Speaker 1: able to get their hands on parts that are as

864
00:49:08,920 --> 00:49:12,440
Speaker 1: universal as possible. And you guys, the manufacturer should be

865
00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:16,520
Speaker 1: supplying repair shops with UM repair manuals for them to reference,

866
00:49:16,560 --> 00:49:19,520
Speaker 1: Like stop doing the opposite of everything we just said

867
00:49:19,960 --> 00:49:22,560
Speaker 1: in order to make it hard to repair your stuff.

868
00:49:22,840 --> 00:49:25,239
Speaker 1: If put out junk if you want, but let us

869
00:49:25,239 --> 00:49:27,680
Speaker 1: repair it. That's kind of what the gist of those

870
00:49:27,719 --> 00:49:30,720
Speaker 1: bills are. Yeah, And you know, like we mentioned before,

871
00:49:30,800 --> 00:49:33,400
Speaker 1: there is a segment of people that think, um, that

872
00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:36,440
Speaker 1: firmly believe that this is all great for industry. It's

873
00:49:36,480 --> 00:49:40,040
Speaker 1: all great for the economy. It keeps an army of

874
00:49:40,080 --> 00:49:43,960
Speaker 1: employees working at these cell phone companies and smartphone companies

875
00:49:44,480 --> 00:49:50,240
Speaker 1: and designers and engineers because of that cycle. Uh So,

876
00:49:50,320 --> 00:49:52,359
Speaker 1: you know, that's one way to look at it. If

877
00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:55,719
Speaker 1: you turn over goods really quickly, then that's a lot

878
00:49:55,760 --> 00:49:59,239
Speaker 1: more stuff that needs to be manufactured and a lot

879
00:49:59,239 --> 00:50:01,440
Speaker 1: more trucks riving things. And you know, it might be

880
00:50:01,480 --> 00:50:05,399
Speaker 1: an environmental nightmare, but those trucks are moving. Yeah. I mean,

881
00:50:05,440 --> 00:50:07,759
Speaker 1: on the one hand, though, it I do agree with

882
00:50:07,800 --> 00:50:11,000
Speaker 1: the idea of saying, Okay, we we want to replace,

883
00:50:11,239 --> 00:50:13,520
Speaker 1: we want people to buy a new phone every three years.

884
00:50:13,760 --> 00:50:16,480
Speaker 1: We have to give them a reason to buy a

885
00:50:16,480 --> 00:50:19,000
Speaker 1: new phone every three years. And one of the outcomes

886
00:50:19,040 --> 00:50:23,880
Speaker 1: of that is that technological innovation that that is happening

887
00:50:24,440 --> 00:50:26,960
Speaker 1: as a result of that. Like just you know, there's

888
00:50:27,000 --> 00:50:30,040
Speaker 1: multiple phone companies all scrambling for market share, so they're

889
00:50:30,080 --> 00:50:33,480
Speaker 1: trying to out innovate one another and justify customers going

890
00:50:33,520 --> 00:50:37,439
Speaker 1: and replacing their phones, but barely. Well, yeah, because there's

891
00:50:37,480 --> 00:50:39,319
Speaker 1: other routes they can take. They can take you know,

892
00:50:39,440 --> 00:50:43,279
Speaker 1: the the fast fashion clothing route and just do cosmetic

893
00:50:43,520 --> 00:50:46,319
Speaker 1: updates to it, or like the easy bake oven. It

894
00:50:46,360 --> 00:50:48,799
Speaker 1: all it does the same thing, virtually the same thing

895
00:50:48,880 --> 00:50:52,080
Speaker 1: from the beginning of its invention until today. It was

896
00:50:52,120 --> 00:50:55,759
Speaker 1: just mainly cosmetic changes that were made to it over

897
00:50:55,840 --> 00:50:58,560
Speaker 1: time to keep up with the times, just like fashion.

898
00:50:58,760 --> 00:51:01,160
Speaker 1: If you do that with a phone technology, then yeah,

899
00:51:01,200 --> 00:51:04,120
Speaker 1: you're slub You're you're not doing your job. But ideally,

900
00:51:04,719 --> 00:51:07,200
Speaker 1: if you release a new version of a phone every

901
00:51:07,239 --> 00:51:11,279
Speaker 1: few years and it is just way better than the

902
00:51:11,280 --> 00:51:14,840
Speaker 1: phone before, that's okay. Yes, there's still the manufacturing problem

903
00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:17,799
Speaker 1: in the waste associated with it that can be dealt with,

904
00:51:18,200 --> 00:51:21,879
Speaker 1: but at least technology is being pushed forward. At least

905
00:51:21,880 --> 00:51:25,040
Speaker 1: it's not just a total scam, you know what I mean. Yeah,

906
00:51:25,120 --> 00:51:27,600
Speaker 1: there's also the idea of value engineering, like kind of

907
00:51:27,640 --> 00:51:31,480
Speaker 1: walking that line as a manufacturer, uh, to not make junk,

908
00:51:31,560 --> 00:51:34,160
Speaker 1: but also to make something affordable for a consumer. And

909
00:51:34,920 --> 00:51:38,160
Speaker 1: if we built a card to the last seventy five years,

910
00:51:38,760 --> 00:51:40,440
Speaker 1: no one would be able to afford it because it

911
00:51:40,440 --> 00:51:44,960
Speaker 1: would all be military grade, right materials or the same

912
00:51:44,960 --> 00:51:48,280
Speaker 1: thing with a phone, Like if this technological progress is happening,

913
00:51:48,360 --> 00:51:52,239
Speaker 1: so that, um, a phone does actually become obsolete, whether

914
00:51:52,280 --> 00:51:55,920
Speaker 1: planned or otherwise, in a couple of years, Um, it

915
00:51:56,040 --> 00:51:58,800
Speaker 1: makes more sense to build phones with cheaper parts that

916
00:51:58,840 --> 00:52:00,960
Speaker 1: aren't gonna last forever, be because then you have to

917
00:52:01,080 --> 00:52:03,839
Speaker 1: replace a five dollar phone every few years rather than

918
00:52:03,880 --> 00:52:06,960
Speaker 1: a five thousand dollar phone every few years. To right,

919
00:52:07,040 --> 00:52:09,480
Speaker 1: and the and the you know, the final point kind

920
00:52:09,520 --> 00:52:11,400
Speaker 1: of is that the consumer does have a little bit

921
00:52:11,440 --> 00:52:16,720
Speaker 1: of responsibility. It's a little bit all of our faults because, uh,

922
00:52:17,080 --> 00:52:19,839
Speaker 1: you might want the new phone in that color one year,

923
00:52:19,880 --> 00:52:22,759
Speaker 1: other one works great. There was a study by the

924
00:52:22,840 --> 00:52:27,120
Speaker 1: same Uko Institute that said a third of all replacement

925
00:52:27,160 --> 00:52:32,280
Speaker 1: purchases for things like fridges and washing machines were motivated by, um,

926
00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:35,399
Speaker 1: just having a newer, better unit even though their old

927
00:52:35,440 --> 00:52:38,120
Speaker 1: one is still fine. Right, So, like, you know, that's

928
00:52:38,200 --> 00:52:41,920
Speaker 1: kind of on the consumer hit him with that last chuck. Uh,

929
00:52:42,000 --> 00:52:46,000
Speaker 1: two thousand twelve, more than sixty of t vs that

930
00:52:46,080 --> 00:52:50,239
Speaker 1: were replaced, We're still functioning. Mike drop TVs. That's that's

931
00:52:50,280 --> 00:52:52,520
Speaker 1: certainly a big one, you know, But I mean the

932
00:52:52,600 --> 00:52:57,200
Speaker 1: question is, did this like ravenous consumer society developed as

933
00:52:57,200 --> 00:53:01,840
Speaker 1: a result of planned obsolescence or did plan obsolescence developed

934
00:53:02,320 --> 00:53:06,000
Speaker 1: to keep up with this ravenous consumer society. That's the

935
00:53:06,080 --> 00:53:08,799
Speaker 1: question we'll leave you with. That is a big question. Yeah,

936
00:53:08,840 --> 00:53:11,200
Speaker 1: I'd love to answer that, we don't have the answer. Well,

937
00:53:11,239 --> 00:53:14,680
Speaker 1: while we try to figure it out, how about instead,

938
00:53:15,520 --> 00:53:21,560
Speaker 1: let's listen to some listener mail from Chuck. Yeah, this

939
00:53:21,640 --> 00:53:24,600
Speaker 1: is a very very sweet email from a gentleman named

940
00:53:24,640 --> 00:53:27,400
Speaker 1: Tom about his daughter. Hey, guys, thanks for being a

941
00:53:27,400 --> 00:53:30,880
Speaker 1: positive influence on my daughter, Grace. She recently graduated from

942
00:53:30,960 --> 00:53:34,040
Speaker 1: high school will be attending the University of Minnesota Twin

943
00:53:34,080 --> 00:53:40,720
Speaker 1: Cities College of Biological Sciences, majoring in cellular and uh organismal.

944
00:53:41,120 --> 00:53:43,799
Speaker 1: I don't even know that word. Tom just made up

945
00:53:43,800 --> 00:53:48,359
Speaker 1: a new word. Physiology. Is that word I guess I've

946
00:53:48,400 --> 00:53:53,600
Speaker 1: never seen because of your shows? Oh here, he says,

947
00:53:53,640 --> 00:53:56,600
Speaker 1: she's even making up new words. There you go. Because

948
00:53:56,640 --> 00:53:58,600
Speaker 1: of your show's unique inside to learning, your you fan

949
00:53:58,719 --> 00:54:02,040
Speaker 1: the flames of desire for knowledge. You routinely reinforce awesome

950
00:54:02,040 --> 00:54:05,800
Speaker 1: and cool knowledge and education can be I started listening

951
00:54:05,840 --> 00:54:07,920
Speaker 1: later than she did to try and listen to an

952
00:54:07,920 --> 00:54:09,839
Speaker 1: episode each way, and then tried to listen to an

953
00:54:09,840 --> 00:54:13,000
Speaker 1: episode each way from work every day. I've heard you

954
00:54:13,080 --> 00:54:15,920
Speaker 1: read listener mail from other parents that complement how you

955
00:54:15,920 --> 00:54:17,800
Speaker 1: always give us something to talk about with our kids.

956
00:54:18,120 --> 00:54:20,719
Speaker 1: That is also true in our home. Recently, on our

957
00:54:20,760 --> 00:54:23,320
Speaker 1: vacation to go skiing in Colorado, we stopped at a

958
00:54:23,360 --> 00:54:28,200
Speaker 1: Pony Express station in Nebraska. Your influences beyond academics too.

959
00:54:28,280 --> 00:54:31,920
Speaker 1: She's involved in her community and articulates educated opinions for

960
00:54:32,000 --> 00:54:34,560
Speaker 1: her passions. She will turn eighteen this fall, and it's

961
00:54:34,600 --> 00:54:37,200
Speaker 1: looking forward to voting. Many of the examples you've given

962
00:54:37,200 --> 00:54:40,560
Speaker 1: your podcasts have empowered her to take positions on social issues.

963
00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:43,480
Speaker 1: I know you know, I hope you know the importance

964
00:54:43,480 --> 00:54:45,920
Speaker 1: and influence of your show. Guys. We look forward to

965
00:54:45,960 --> 00:54:49,960
Speaker 1: your show in Chicago. Yeah, so Tom and the family

966
00:54:50,080 --> 00:54:54,280
Speaker 1: are coming to UH from Rockford, Illinois to Chicago. Thanks Tommy.

967
00:54:54,320 --> 00:54:57,719
Speaker 1: What was Tom's daughter's name again, Grace, Grace, Grace, Thank

968
00:54:57,760 --> 00:55:01,040
Speaker 1: you very much for making us look so good. Yeah, um,

969
00:55:01,080 --> 00:55:06,239
Speaker 1: and good luck in school. Congrats and yeah, we'll see

970
00:55:06,280 --> 00:55:10,239
Speaker 1: you guys in Chicago. Um oh, I guess that's it.

971
00:55:10,320 --> 00:55:12,839
Speaker 1: If you want to get in touch with us, like

972
00:55:12,920 --> 00:55:15,799
Speaker 1: Grace and Tom did, you can what chuck go onto

973
00:55:15,800 --> 00:55:17,400
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know dot com and check out our

974
00:55:17,440 --> 00:55:21,120
Speaker 1: social links and then you could also just send us

975
00:55:21,120 --> 00:55:23,759
Speaker 1: an email and if you want to do that, send

976
00:55:23,800 --> 00:55:30,520
Speaker 1: it to stuff podcast at i heeart radio dot com.

977
00:55:30,600 --> 00:55:32,920
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio.

978
00:55:33,400 --> 00:55:36,560
Speaker 1: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

979
00:55:36,760 --> 00:55:39,680
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.