The lightbulb consipracy

A documentary on planned obsolescence.

Generally this video is about planned obsolescence which the manufacturers intentionally create products that has short life spam in order to increase demand among the consumers.

Personally I think that this video really challenges my mind towards the relationship between the consumers, the manufactures and the economy of the country as a whole. From the perspective of economics, I think it is perfectly logical that when products can last long, like a few generations, then consumers would not buy new products produce by the manufacturers. When the demands of the products becomes low due to the long life spam of the products, manufacturers would not continue to produce goods, which is one of the channel which jobs and careers are produced. When people are out of job and the manufacturing industry becomes stagnant, that's the period that we call an economic depression.

Planned obsolescence provides a channel to support the economy. By shortening the life spam of the manufactured products, consumers have no choice but to dump their products and buy new one as substitutions. This raises the demand of the products in the market. The higher the demand the better the economy as more jobs are created to support this demand. More jobs opportunities will improve the economy status of a wider range of consumers as they are better paid and have higher buying power.

However, this engenders a hidden problem: the earth resources cannot support such consumerism. As shown in the video, wasted electronics are thrown into the developing countries as "second hand products". Natural resources of the earth are continuously used up to produce new goods for the market. Marketing strategies have influenced our ways of consuming products. We tend to change our phones, laptops and cameras in a yearly basis, or even in a monthly basis. Unlike the natural cycle which living organisms are dead and are being broken into nutrients to support the creation of new organisms, we don't reuse or recreate from the used products that we created initially. Not only does it damage our environment, but it also creates a future that our economy just couldn't support anymore.

I believe that planned obsolescence should be carried out to maintain the economy. My reasons are that jobs opportunities are required to sustain the economy and one of the most effective ways is to increase the demands of products from the consumers. When consumers consume, manufacturers can produce more goods, which results in more extensive products research that can be more environmental friendly and recyclable. Based on the law that people act purposefully and react proportionally to incentives, I believe that manufacturers will manufacture products that complies with the natural law: there is a balance cycle to the created and the dumped.