This is moderatly interesting. I mean, like articles on Planned Obsolescence have never been written before. I do wonder if everything on Medium is written by an AI and thats the whole point of it. Was there anything actually worth reading? Above and beyond the inherent interest in waste?

What strikes me about this articles, and I will not blame the aithor for this, is that it ignores the deeper issue that we face, and thats population overgrowth. Thats whats scaling up the issue of waste and the impact of Planned Obsolescence on that waste. In the 1950’s Planned Obsolescence made sense, but now with so many more people with disposable income, its not.

However, the deeper issue parallel to population growth is people obsolesence. With automation there are fewer traditional jobs as we knew them but little to replace them, and Planned Obsolescence comes back as the solution. If a piece of furniture was designed to last forever, as they used to be, then furniture manufactures would be out of business, etc etc.

Personally I buy very little and dont go out much and find that as a single person I throw 1 bag of rubbish out every 2–3 weeks. My footprint is tiny. What i’m picking up from my experience is that the people charged with controlling our nations, NOT PURILE BLOGGERS, are between a rock and a hard place, and essentially want as much economic activity as possible, and if that means creating mindless consumers that buy tons of crap, then thats what they want to do. Point being, if you stop buying stuff and make do and fix old stuff, and even as I do, take rubbish home you find on the street, then your putting other people, often less able people, out of work. If you dont buy a washing machine, people that make washing machines become unemployed, they grow resentful, and mug a person in the street. Crime.

Utopian ideals are great, but they dont work. I would like to see the return of home clothe makers, dress makers, women that are self employed that sit at home making dresses. Why not? I have even though of it. I sit at home making web sites. Sitting at home is great. Women, and even men, could sit at home making clothes and sell them through web portals for home made clothes, even take special order etc. This might even employ more people with greater pride than the clothing industry. Getting people working from home I think is important to all of this. Years ago we all used to have trades, cart makers, thatchers, charwomen, etc etc. Industrialism and automation has changed the fabric of our society such that the powers that be penalise those that dont queue up to work for the man in offices and factories. Thats what we need to change. All textiles, as rags, would be recycled, etc etc. Increased productivity and sense of self worth and a withdrawal from in sane machine that exerts perverted market forces creating waste etc.

As a final note, look at EuroCom the laptop maker, hi-tech that lasts, just replace the bits as required over time.