WEBVTT - Selects: Planned Obsolescence: Engine of the Consumer Economy 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:04.000 Hey everyone, it's Josh and for this week's select, I 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.800 picked our episode on Planned Obsolescence. It's the one where 0:00:07.840 --> 0:00:10.320 Chuck and I turned into old fogies and start griping 0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:12.640 about how things today aren't as good as they used 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:15.600 to be, but it turns out that we're right. It's 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:18.799 one of the more eye opening and maddening episodes, and 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:21.000 hopefully it'll shine a bit of light on one of 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:26.079 the more wasteful aspects of our global mechanism. I just 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:29.040 made that turn up, So sit back and check it out. 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:35.040 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:44.280 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:46.960 and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryan over there, and there's 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:49.919 Jerry over there. So this is Stuff you should know. 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:55.840 Built a break edition? Okay, I didn't. I was not 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:57.680 paying attention when you said which one we were doing, 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:00.760 and I thought, you know what, just gonna pick up 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:04.280 on the clues. Wow, right right out of the gate. 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:06.400 When did you have it? When I said, um, there's 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:10.200 Charles W. Chuck Bryant planned to break? Okay, got that 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:13.880 was pretty sharp, Chuck, hey man. After the eleven as years, 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:16.959 it's as easy as that. You can read my mind. 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:21.399 So let's talk about the civil Air Patrol. He just 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:24.920 threw me off. Luckily it wasn't enough for me to 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:27.720 stop and correct you. Though. I'm excited about this one 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:30.840 because planned obsolescence is one of those things that's, uh, 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.959 I think just annoying to people like us. Were you 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.760 were you raised with the idea of planning planned obsolescence? Like, 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:42.600 were you aware of it when you were younger? No? 0:01:42.920 --> 0:01:45.960 Because when I was a kid, things seemed to last longer. 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:50.960 I had the same refrigerator my entire life as a child, 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:55.520 same metallic p refrigerator. We even got it like refaced, 0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:59.440 Like that's how long you could have an appliance like that. 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:02.760 It's like the styles have changed, so just get a 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:06.520 new front for it. That's astounding, man, I didn't even 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:08.400 know that you could do that. Yeah, I mean, I 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:11.360 doubt if you still can know, but I definitely can't. Ye. 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:13.280 Back then, they were like, yeah, this is a fifty 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:17.160 year fridge, so every years, get a new thing on 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:20.799 the front. Yeah. Well, if you're sitting there going a 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:25.239 good When Chuck said fifty year fridge, that's okay. That's 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:28.040 the world. We live in now. The point is it 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:31.639 didn't used to be that way. UM. Things used to 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:36.200 last forever and ever, right, So what changed? That's a 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:38.440 big question that's on people's mind. And what a lot 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:43.720 of people point to is something called planned obsolescence UM, 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:46.400 which is pretty straightforward if you think about It's basically 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:53.079 UM companies deliberately making their products UM so that they 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:57.040 last a shorter amount of time in order to make 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:59.919 you the consumer, have to go back and buy an 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:04.000 other one much more UM, much sooner than you normally 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:07.160 would have if the things were built to last longer. Yeah, 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:09.120 and there are a lot of ways that this can 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:11.679 go down. It's not always just like hey, build it 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.440 cheap or build it out of creuddy materials, but that 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:18.720 is certainly one way to do it. UM. Obviously, the 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:23.080 you know, with smartphones and the technology UH sector of 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:25.120 the world, that's where you really hear a lot about 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:28.600 this because, UM, I know a lot of people have 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:32.440 been frustrated with smartphones and the fact that like, hey, 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.360 maybe I want to go five years with a smartphone 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.760 and not have a new update, make it slow, or 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:43.680 not have my battery not work after three years and 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:46.600 stuff like that, Right, And I mean, like it shouldn't 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:49.640 have to be like an identity statement to have to 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:52.240 keep a phone for five years, like you're swimming against 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:55.320 the current or sticking it to the man. Like you 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:57.240 should just be able to keep your phone for as 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:01.080 long as you like and it's still not only continue 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:04.320 to work, but also to be like compatible with the 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.440 rest of the world going on around it. That's just 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:09.720 that's just not the way, that's not the case. That's 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.520 just not how things are made, especially in the technology sector, 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:15.880 like you were saying, right, and here's the thing is, 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:19.880 it's like this is something that a company is not 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:24.240 going to admit to. Um, it's not against the law. Uh. 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:26.440 Some people say it's a myth and it's just like 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:30.679 tinfoil hat territory. Um. Other people say, no, it clearly 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:35.000 totally happens. And then other people even say, yeah, it happens. 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:38.000 But this is great for the economy to keep people 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:41.400 making stuff all the time. Right. So there's this idea 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:45.200 of you know, is planned obsolescence a real thing? And 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.640 if it is real, because I think you kind of 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:50.520 touched on it with that third group, some people are like, yeah, 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:54.559 it is real, but it's not like deliberate and out 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:57.599 of like a sense of avarice or exploitation. It's just 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:01.520 kind of part of the world we live in these stays. Um. 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:03.080 I think a lot of people that are like, no, 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:05.600 it is real, and it is deliberate, and it is 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:09.240 out of avarice, and it stinks. It does stink. We'll 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:13.520 find that there's a lot there's a lot wrong with it, right. Yeah, So, uh, 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:17.000 this this early light bulb story is pretty interesting. Um, 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:21.280 way back when Thomas Edison invented a light bulb in 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:23.880 the late eighteen hundreds that people could use in their homes, 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:28.920 he used carbon filaments which were eight times thicker than 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:33.599 the tungsten filaments that came like later, like three decades later. 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:38.000 So these things lasted a long time and they were 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.360 built to last. And I can't believe I'm forty eight 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:45.200 years old and I never had heard of the Centennial light, 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:48.640 which is a lightbulb from nineteen o one that is 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:52.400 still working in California. Yeah, and a fire station in California, 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:54.400 and it's on almost all the time. It's not like 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:57.840 they turn it off for thirty five years at a stretch. Now, 0:05:57.880 --> 0:05:59.880 you probably wouldn't want to turn it off at this point, 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:02.920 would pay Probably not. That's probably the only reason it's 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:05.200 working is because it doesn't know. It doesn't have to. 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.000 They've got like the Scotch tape over the light switch 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:13.760 with like do not turn off. It's dim now though, 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:17.040 uh I saw that it's down to about a night 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:20.880 light for watts or so. Well, it's been burning for 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:23.560 a hundred and eighteen years, give it a break. Hey man, 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:25.919 I'm not I'm not knocking the centennial light. He's my 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:30.080 favorite little old light buddy. Not my presence abilities, but yeah, 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:33.120 I mean that thing point is they were built to last. 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:38.800 And initially this is because electric companies installed and maintained 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.880 all these systems, including like hey, you needed a new bulb, Like, 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:45.400 we'll come and take care of it for you. And 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.320 then that got shifted to the consumer and they were 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:51.960 like hey, and they literally were like hey, because there 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.840 was a concerted effort that wasn't just like some abstract thought. 0:06:56.560 --> 0:07:00.000 There was something called the Phoebus Cartel in the nineteen 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.360 twenties when all these electric companies from around the world 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:07.400 and bulb manufacturers got together and literally colluded and said, hey, 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:09.760 let's make lightbulbs not last. As long because we can 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:14.040 sell more. Yeah, collusion. Can you believe that? I can't 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.880 actually believe it. Not only it's not like they got together, 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:20.960 like they sent some letters or smokes and cigars or 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:24.920 happen to have like a conversation at a club or 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:29.040 something like that, Like they met in Geneva, Switzerland to 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:33.000 hold a secret meeting to form a lightbulb cartel to 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:36.480 make lightbulbs last a shorter amount of time so they 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:40.840 could sell more. It's just happened. I mean, that's that's 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:44.720 very much proof if you're like planned obsolescence and really 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:47.160 a thing, Like, there's proof that at one point it 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.480 was definitely a thing. It was a thing in one 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:55.680 of the earliest industries around in the post industrial age, 0:07:56.520 --> 0:08:00.680 so um so the light bulb cartel kind of it. Definitely. 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:04.080 It's not like that just kicked off everything where everybody's like, oh, yeah, 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:06.320 that's what we're gonna do from now on. It's almost 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:09.240 like the impression I got is that this is an 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:13.640 independent idea that was just kind of cropped up throughout 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:17.680 the course of the twenty century. But the next people 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:20.440 that hit upon it, I think, I don't it's entirely 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:23.040 possible that these guys were all sharing info, you know, 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:26.680 But the lightbulb guys were like, hey, you you car 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:29.400 makers are being idiots. Here's what you need to do 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:32.440 the same places in the Catskills every summer. That's what 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:36.880 I would guess, seeing that young upcoming comedian Henny Young 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:41.400 men do bit so. So the the automakers were the 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:44.240 first to hit on it next and UM specifically a 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:48.200 guy named Alfred P. Sloan who was a groundbreaking early 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:52.360 president of General Motors UM, who said, I've got an idea. 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:55.199 We could sell way more cars if we just make 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:58.760 little updates here there every year to the same car, 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.800 but just change it out enough so that you want 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:06.120 the newer car. It's newer, it's flash year, it's better 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:09.320 than the car you own. So maybe after a couple 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:12.160 of years somebody will take their car that still works 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:14.720 just fine and trade it in for a new one. 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:17.240 And he's the guy who came up with that. Yeah, 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:20.920 that's called dynamic obsolescence. And I mean, now we take 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:22.720 it for a granted, because that's all you hear about 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:27.040 is the new model year. But previous to that, I mean, 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:29.240 I'd love to do a show on the early auto industry. 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:32.280 I guess they've just made cars and they were called 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:36.160 the whatever. And I mean when did they make new 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.720 ones every five or six seven years when they had 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:41.319 a real innimation? Well he had this idea in like 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:44.520 the twenties or thirties, so they there weren't They wouldn't 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.720 have been cars for that many very long yeah, before then, 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:49.520 but I think it was just like the Model T 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:53.200 or the Model A or the the box with wheels, 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.800 you know which all of those were right. Uh. Yeah. 0:09:56.840 --> 0:10:00.640 The actual term, though, planned obsolescence UM, was in a 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:03.560 pamphlet for the first time in nineteen thirty two, written 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:07.040 by real estate broker named Bernard London. Uh and this 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:11.160 pamphlet was called you know it's thirty two. If it's like, uh, 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:15.199 the big pamphlet writing days, you don't get enough of 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.240 those anymore. You really don't see too many pamphlets outside 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:21.080 of like a government office or something, right, or if 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:24.120 you're in Vegas and it's just got you know, you know, 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:28.480 you know what those kind of pamphlets, right, But this 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:31.000 was a two and it was called Ending the Depression 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:36.480 through Planned Obsolescence. Uh so right there, it's in the title. 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:39.040 First time it had ever been used. And this was 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:44.600 a plan for for products to include an artificial expiration date. 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.160 So the idea was, if you're a consumer and you 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:51.200 continue to use that product beyond that date, sort of 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:54.319 like you know, taking an old pill or drinking old milk, 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:58.560 except you would be charged attacks like, hey, you're still 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:02.040 using that fridge. It's two years past his date, so 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:04.480 you gotta pay a tax on that now, right, And 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:07.800 it did not take hold, surprisingly or not surprisingly right, 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:11.480 But there's supposedly, from what I saw, there's fifteen copies 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:13.920 of that pamphlet known to exist still and they're all 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:18.240 in libraries, and there were twenty originally, right exactly. But 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:21.000 that Bernard London he had, you know, he had kind 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:24.240 of an idea, but it was misplaced. It was in 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:27.040 the wrong place. It was like, nobody wants to tax 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:29.640 the consumer for using an item they paid for, fair 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:32.040 and square. That's just that's not going to be a 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:35.320 very popular idea. So he had he was kind of 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:38.600 on the right path, but he found a tree and 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:40.840 he started barking up it and it was the wrong one, 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:44.640 you know what I mean. Yeah, But that was in fact, 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.120 that same year there were two other guys Roy Sheldon 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:51.880 and uh, this is a great name, egmont Errands, and 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:54.320 they wrote a book that wasn't too far off that 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:58.679 pamphlet called consumer Engineering colon or lease of colon in 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:03.000 the title, and technique for Prosperity, and they called it 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:07.080 creative waste and just basically flat outsaid we should make 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:10.640 things that are less durable because uh, you know, people 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:14.560 are going to buy more stuff, right and that yeah, 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:17.679 which I mean lays the foundation for the consumer economy 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:20.000 that we live in today. Like that's it right there. 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:22.640 These guys came up with the basis of it, yeah, 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:25.760 And it got me thinking about like when you when 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:29.400 you there are places that make really awesome things that 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:33.280 are like they're selling point is this is really built 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:37.000 to last, whether it's a wallet or you know, a 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:40.040 piece of clothing or something. No, there are these you know, 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:42.280 there are these high end wallet makers now that are 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:43.880 saying like this is the wallet that you can have 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:47.400 for sixty years like your father that um. But they 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:51.679 often say things like, you know, use military grade fabrics 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.199 or this or that, and I think that's just like 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:57.040 back then they used to use the highest grade and 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.760 calling a military grade it sounds all fancy, but what 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:02.880 the really means is we use stuff like they used 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:05.679 to because it just lasts, and now only the military 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.800 does that kind of thing. You know, Yeah, No, I 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:11.000 think you're absolutely right. I mean, that's what That's what 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:14.520 Bernard London and Roy Sheldon and eggma errands that the 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:18.080 foundation of their ideas, even though they were separate ideas, 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:22.880 was that things were made too well back then, and 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:26.040 Bernard London's idea was, well, you can just keep making 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:28.080 them really well, but you have to say that you 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:33.200 can't use it beyond this this date, which wouldn't work. 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:35.960 But Roy Sheldon and Egmont Aaron said, well, we could 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:39.680 go the opposite way and just make stuff less durable 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:43.480 and sell more of it. That's the whole point to 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:46.319 stimulate the economy. Because remember both of these were written 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:49.640 during the depression, and they their idea was to stimulate 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:54.760 the economy by artificially creating repeat customers that otherwise wouldn't 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:58.800 exist because the stuff that that you would go by 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:01.880 is too durable. If you go buy a hose and 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.560 that hose is going to last you for the rest 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:07.320 of your life, and you're not in a business where 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:09.800 you need multiple hoses. You're just a homeowner. You're not 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:13.120 in the business, you're a hosemaker. Well, I'm actually referring 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:17.120 specifically to a hose that my dad bought from Sears 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:21.480 in the sixties. He still had it until the nineties, 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:25.720 and it sprung the leak, and Sears used to guarantee 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:28.960 everything that they sold for a lifetime. My dad took 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.080 it back to his Sears and they gave him another 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:34.520 hose in the nineties. Right. So, but the idea of 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:38.200 a hose lasting thirtysomething years, let alone being replaced when it, 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:40.840 you know, for free when it when it breaks like 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:43.960 that was that was the problem. Stuff was just made 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:46.520 too well. And you can actually go on to like 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.600 Etsy and eBay and sights like that today, Chuck, And 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:54.840 there's like a whole um, a whole like subculture I 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:59.360 guess of people who buy vintage appliances that's still work 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:02.800 they were they they worked like they did the day 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:05.760 you bought them. Like I saw a Sunbeam mixer from 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:08.800 nineteen thirty and it says like works perfectly well, has 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:11.640 a few scuffs on it. That's it from nineteen thirty. 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:14.720 That's coming up on a hundred years ago. Yeah, it 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.600 also weighs two hundred and seventy five pounds and it 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.040 catches your house on fire, so you'll have to pay 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:23.040 a lot of money to have it shipped. But um, yeah, 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:25.760 I mean it's crazy because that was this early planned 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:30.200 obsolescence was in the thirties and forties. When we think 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:32.880 of that's when they were making great stuff, and like 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:35.560 now it's progressed to the point where it's just like, 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:38.520 let's just make pure garbage, right, but it won't last 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:42.120 a year. The point originally was that that it would 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:45.000 stimulate the economy if you could sell the same person 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:48.680 stuff multiple times over their life, rather than making something 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:50.720 that lasts in generation so that they only have to 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:54.520 buy the one hose for their lifetime. Right, Well, your 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:57.440 dad has two nicknames now, the herbal Elvis and uh 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:04.680 one host Clark. Um, all right, shall we take a break? 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:06.520 I think so, all right, let's take a break, and 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:08.200 we're gonna come back and talk about a man named 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:27.720 Brooks Stevens right after this large ska doble sk as. 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:38.239 All right, so this idea is out there. Planned obsolescence. Um, 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.800 it's been written down. It's a term. It really kind 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:43.880 of became more common in the nineteen fifties, even though 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:45.960 it was first written about in the early nineteen thirties. 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:50.320 And this is where a man named Brooks Stevens enters. 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:54.920 He was a Milwaukee industrial designer, and he did a 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:57.400 lot of stuff. He worked in the automobile industry, he 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:01.800 worked in the appliance industry. UM, and basically his whole 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:05.120 jam was no, no, no no, we we need to make 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:09.040 things obsolete and not last very long because this is 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:12.720 good for industry. Right, Let's go get that bread. Yeah, 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:15.280 go get that bread and keep people working, keep people 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:19.680 making stuff. Uh. At a nineteen fifty four advertising conference, 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:23.760 he gave a speech where he said, quote instilling in 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:26.040 the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:30.280 a little better, a little sooner than is necessary. End quote. Yeah, 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:33.240 it's right there. Just make it a little crappier, a 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:36.600 little crettier, and you'll sell more of them over a 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:38.560 long period of time. I can you take the long 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:41.520 view of it, and like, if you are looking at 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:45.160 it strictly from like an economic sense, like an academic sense, 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:50.320 this just makes like total sense. It's perfectly normal and 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:53.680 rational and a kind of a good idea. But when 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:58.080 you put it into practice, we've found, Um, there's a 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:01.600 lot of problems that start to emerge pretty quickly. Uh, 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:04.600 And emerged so quickly that Um Brooks Stevens, you know, 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.639 gave that very famous speech, well famous among industrial designers, 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:12.480 but he gave he made that speech in nineteen fifty four. 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:16.680 By nineteen sixty six years later, there was a popular 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:20.440 book by a guy named Vance Packard called The Waste Bakers, 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:25.200 and it was basically about all the problems that come 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:29.240 from that kind of mentality that planned obsolescence creates, all 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.960 the waste associated with, all the unnecessary consumerism, all the 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.280 keeping up with the joneses that emerges. Like just six 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:40.280 years after that speech, so really quickly people started to 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:43.040 see the problems with planned obsolescence, like right out of 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:46.800 the gate. Yeah, this Vance Packard, I think maybe we 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:49.480 could try and do a short stuff on yeah, easily, 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:52.080 just kind of reading up on him. He was a 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:55.800 sort of a pre Ralph Nader social critic um, and 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:58.240 I guess Nader was a little more toward like public safety. 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:00.960 But Vance Packard, he wrote a bunch of cool books 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:04.879 and essays, one called The Hidden Persuaders that tackled the 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:09.399 advertising industry and subliminal advertising and stuff like that. He 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:12.840 was like the arch enemy of Edward Burnet's I imagine. Yeah. 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:16.480 Uh Thato was one called an essay called the Naked Society, 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.920 which had to do in the nineteen sixties, I think 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:25.000 about consumer privacy. Yeah, technol ahead of his time. Yeah. 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:28.560 And then the last thing he wrote in nine was 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:31.480 called the Ultra Rich colin how much is too Much? 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:36.159 How much is too much? Yea. So he died a 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:38.240 few years later. Like up until the very end, was 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:41.359 kind of fighting the good fight for saying, what a 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:47.680 you know, what a wasteful, invasive, gross society that we're 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:50.200 building here in the United States. Yeah. It was an 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:54.159 interesting dude, definitely the kind of author that you know, 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:58.520 guys like um, Gladwell and Friedman and all of them started, 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:00.720 you know, followed in the footstep stuff, but he he 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:02.960 kind of laid the groundwork for that, that kind of 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:06.400 reporting on you know, kind of the ugliness of this 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:10.040 society that sold to us. I think we should definitely 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:13.080 do uum a short stuff on him. Yeah. Okay, some 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:17.520 pinky swear. Pinky swear, Okay, Um, your pinky's cold. I 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:21.639 don't know if that's soothing to me or frightening. It 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:24.240 should be a little frightening. I'm frightened by because it 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:29.640 feels sweaty. Guys, I think Josh is dead. My nose 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:33.439 just falls off on to the table. God, let me 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:37.600 put that back. Problem. Um, The funny thing is, as 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:40.880 long as you could keep podcasting out probably like that's fine. Fine, Yeah, 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:43.600 I like corpse Josh. You buy me like a steel 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:47.040 rod to go in my spine for Christmas? Yeah, but 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:48.640 I'd have to buy one every couple of years because 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:51.680 they don't last like they It's true, they don't last 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:53.960 like the US. That's another thing I really really want 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.320 to say this chuck, because I'm sure too, especially some 0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:01.159 of our younger listeners. We sound like a couple like 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:03.440 they don't make it like they used to. Know, it's 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:07.000 proven they don't make things like they used to. It's 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:10.320 not just people like pining for the good old days 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.320 or anything like that. Like there is a definite progression 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:17.560 of um, increasing cruddiness among the stuff you buy, and 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:21.320 the shortening in the lifespan and durability of the things 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:24.159 we buy. It's just happening. Yeah, it's funny when I 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:28.320 see stuff on social media about people complaining about their 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:31.159 fridge that doesn't work, over this or that, and like, 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:33.160 what about the lemon law. I'm always just like, oh, 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:36.280 that's cute. I'm sure you're gonna get real far with 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:38.879 the lemon law. Although we should look into that for 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:42.200 short stuff too, because there is such a thing. I 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:46.800 just don't know how, you know, I'm sure we about it. 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:50.800 We talked about it before. Maybe we Uh, how do 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:55.280 we even did a show years ago? Work? Oh? Man? 0:21:55.800 --> 0:21:58.399 I hearkened back to that show pretty frequently, like whenever 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:01.399 I'm offered an extended warranty and wow, that sounds like 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:04.320 a really good deal. What did we say in the 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:08.919 extended warranty episode? Oh? Yes, never don't extended warranty. It's 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:12.800 never worth it if I remember correctly. Alright, so shall 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:14.919 we chat a little bit about some of some of 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:18.080 the worst defenders these days. Yeah. First up on the 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:21.679 t ball T is Apple. Yeah. Apple is in the 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:24.040 news a lot um and it's very much at the 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:27.960 center of the um the talk among the skeptics and 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:32.160 on the skeptics websites about their evil plan to keep 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:36.080 you on their machines every couple of years through you 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:40.040 know updates that slowed down your phone, which was proven true. Yeah, 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:42.800 well there's a class action lawsuit against them for it. Yeah, 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:45.000 so here's what happened. If you live under a rock, 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:47.800 Apple got um. They sent out an update. There's a 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:51.080 few years ago, and the update was shown and that 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:54.439 they admitted that it did slow the phones down, but 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:58.680 their whole response was, Hey, this is because the battery stinks. 0:23:00.600 --> 0:23:02.760 They're like, we're trying to make your battery last longer, 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:05.560 so we're slowing some things down in order to give 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:08.440 you a better battery life. And then here's what we'll 0:23:08.480 --> 0:23:11.359 do everyone, We're so sorry. We're gonna you can buy 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:15.919