How My Broken Washing Machine Reminded Me of Planned Obsolescence

Planned Obsolescence (noun) a policy of producing consumer goods that rapidly become obsolete and so require replacing, achieved by frequent changes in design, termination of the supply of spare parts, and the use of non-durable materials.

We recently replaced our washing machine it was only four years old. We were able to buy new parts to fix it but after each part was installed it still did not work right. Instead of putting more money into the washing machine we decided to replace it with an older model.

This little journey reminded me of a cartoon I watched when my children were little, The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars (1998). The little toaster decided to go to Mars and while there meets a colony of forgotten appliances and he and his friends learn of Wonderluxe and the evil plan of making a flaw in the appliances so they would break and need to be replaced. Of course, it is a children's story, and all the little appliances are sad or angry, so they build a space craft and fly to Mars.

This term is not a new one and has been around in different forms for about 100 years from my research and we as consumers are part of the blame.

In 1924, Alfred P Sloane an executive for General Motors suggested making changes to cars on a yearly basis to entice consumers to buy the next model. The market was reaching a saturation point and when that happens sales for an item slow down or stop. Mr. Sloane called it dynamic obsolescence and it changed the car industry.

A quote from Mr. Sloane's 1963 autobiography, “The changes in the new model should be so novel and attractive as to create demand…and a certain amount of dissatisfaction with past models as compared with the new one,”

In 1932, Bernard London an American real estate broker wrote a paper titled Ending the Depression Through Planned Obsolescence. He states in his paper “Furniture and clothing and other commodities should have a span of life, just as humans have,” and “They should be retired, and replaced by fresh merchandise. It should be the duty of the State as the regulator of business to see that the system functions smoothly.”

Do you remember seeing the big colored sale flyers come out during the holidays showing children and adults alike what is new, fresh, and fun. All must haves for the best holiday season. Or the commercials during Saturday morning cartoons showing kids what cool toys they must have. Advertisers for years have made us as consumers want bigger, fresher, cooler, and the latest and greatest. This would be classified as perceived obsolescence or making us think something is outdated, out of fashion, or just not cool enough. This is a form of planned obsolescence.

When I watched the little toaster go to Mars with my children, I felt it was the fault of big business and their plan of manufacturing items of lower quality than in the past. Well, this is part of the big picture not the whole picture though.

Examples of planned obsolescence:

Is planned obsolescence illegal? No, it is not. Is it beneficial? From my point of view, no it only causes increased consumerism but not a social benefit. When there is a demand prices go up and when there is a drop in demand the prices go down. When the market is saturated with items that last and are durable, we don't buy new items, and sales go down. From an economic point of view this is not a good thing money is not being made.

We demand the latest and greatest and we want it now. To fill the demand cheaper versions of items will flood the market and we as consumers buy them up. It's a cycle that will keep on going as we want more, feel we need more, or just want it right now.

At some point we as consumers will demand quality, big business will see the need, and our landfills and junk yards will stop filling up. But from an economic point of view a lot of thought needs to go into how to keep the economy stable and have durable products. Consumers and business will have to meet in the middle to have a plan for this to happen.