Planned Obsolescence, like any intentional scam on consumers, needs to be illegal with real legal consequences.

[Twilight Hue]

Planned Obsolescence - Should Be an Offense Punishable like Any Deception - HG.org

Planned obsolescence occurs when a product designer creates a design that is meant to phase out after a certain period of time. This makes the product have a

www.hg.org

Fortunately a number of countries are waking up to this con man's racket and are taking steps to protect consumers from shady planned obsolescence scams where a product is intentionally designed to fail.

Planned Obsolescence: A Strategy in Search of Legal Rules - IIC - International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law

link.springer.com

Only France has such laws in place to actually punish those with fines and prison who intentionslly implements fails and design flaws into their products in order to force consumers to pay more for new replacements or upgrades.

Good for France!

 

[Brickjectivity]

Planned Obsolescence - Should Be an Offense Punishable like Any Deception - HG.org

Planned obsolescence occurs when a product designer creates a design that is meant to phase out after a certain period of time. This makes the product have a

www.hg.org

Fortunately a number of countries are waking up to this con man's racket and are taking steps to protect consumers from shady planned obsolescence scams where a product is intentionally designed to fail.

Planned Obsolescence: A Strategy in Search of Legal Rules - IIC - International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law

link.springer.com

Only France has such laws in place to actually punish those with fines and prison who intentionslly implements fails and design flaws into their products in order to force consumers to pay more for new replacements or upgrades.

Good for France!

In USA that would require raising taxes to fund a new large department set aside to monitor and regulate manufactured products. I think it would be worth while, but it could go very wrong, too. First we'd have to require that companies make predictions about the life of their products, studying each part and getting them certified. Few companies would offer the information without being required to, and many would willingly lie about it. So then this new department would be over the certification process and would track and follow up to make sure the products were lasting as predicted. They'd all have a planned obsolescence, then. Then you might be able to at that point be able to specify minimum lifetime usage. Without all of that you'd be hard pressed to find a way to make it happen and fight off all of the lobbying.

Maybe there would be other ways of doing it, but that's what I think you'd have to do.

 

[Twilight Hue]

In USA that would require raising taxes to fund a new large department set aside to monitor and regulate manufactured products. I think it would be worth while, but it could go very wrong, too. First we'd have to require that companies make predictions about the life of their products, studying each part and getting them certified. Few companies would offer the information without being required to, and many would willingly lie about it. So then this new department would be over the certification process and would track and follow up to make sure the products were lasting as predicted. They'd all have a planned obsolescence, then. Then you might be able to at that point be able to specify minimum lifetime usage. Without all of that you'd be hard pressed to find a way to make it happen and fight off all of the lobbying.

Maybe there would be other ways of doing it, but that's what I think you'd have to do.

I think here in the states , a good start would be that of full disclosure where a person would know beforehand the life expectancy of whatever product or software that they're buying , and it's designed date of expiration designed by the manufacturer to fail at a designated point.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I think here in the states , a good start would be that of full disclosure where a person would know beforehand the life expectancy of whatever product or software that they're buying , and it's designed date of expiration designed by the manufacturer to fail at a designated point.

What if most claim not to know or otherwise work to go around the system?

 

[Twilight Hue]

What if most claim not to know or otherwise work to go around the system?

That would be a good job for consumer reports or other news to publish if the manufacturer plays dumb about it.

Like Apple when they throttled and updated phones to irritating levels of consumer frustration , it just came out anyways and Apple was caught in the act.

Apple settles iPhone slowdown case for $500m

Apple agrees a payout over allegations it deliberately slowed down older iPhones.

www.bbc.com

 

[Heyo]

In USA that would require raising taxes to fund a new large department set aside to monitor and regulate manufactured products. I think it would be worth while, but it could go very wrong, too. First we'd have to require that companies make predictions about the life of their products, studying each part and getting them certified. Few companies would offer the information without being required to, and many would willingly lie about it. So then this new department would be over the certification process and would track and follow up to make sure the products were lasting as predicted. They'd all have a planned obsolescence, then. Then you might be able to at that point be able to specify minimum lifetime usage. Without all of that you'd be hard pressed to find a way to make it happen and fight off all of the lobbying.

Maybe there would be other ways of doing it, but that's what I think you'd have to do.

A first step that doesn't take so much bureaucracy could be a deposit system. It doesn't attack the scam directly but at least it tackles the garbage problem and corporations would have to plan for the refunds. I don't know the laws in the US but in Germany those financial plans would have to public.

 

[Brickjectivity]

That would be a good job for consumer reports or other news to publish if the manufacturer plays dumb about it.

Like Apple when they throttled and updated phones to irritating levels of consumer frustration , it just came out anyways and Apple was caught in the act.

Your law idea is great, but I think the lobbies are strong. Too many would see this as a direct business threat. Getting it implemented is a problem.

 

[Brickjectivity]

A first step that doesn't take so much bureaucracy could be a deposit system. It doesn't attack the scam directly but at least it tackles the garbage problem and corporations would have to plan for the refunds. I don't know the laws in the US but in Germany those financial plans would have to public.

You mean a system that takes in old expired products?

 

[Heyo]

You mean a system that takes in old expired products?

Yes. There are laws requiring such systems for many groups of products. E.g. car batteries, you can give back old ones for a refund or discount on a new one and public waste management doesn't have to deal with toxic waste (that are resources at the same time).

 

[Brickjectivity]

Yes. There are laws requiring such systems for many groups of products. E.g. car batteries, you can give back old ones for a refund or discount on a new one and public waste management doesn't have to deal with toxic waste (that are resources at the same time).

It sounds like a perfect plan. Lawmakers could get public buy in for that.

 

[Heyo]

It sounds like a perfect plan. Lawmakers could get public buy in for that.

Public, yes, but corporations often don't like to deal with the waste they are producing. But when forced to, they tend to make the best out of it, i.e. recycling.

 

[Estro Felino]

A first step that doesn't take so much bureaucracy could be a deposit system. It doesn't attack the scam directly but at least it tackles the garbage problem and corporations would have to plan for the refunds. I don't know the laws in the US but in Germany those financial plans would have to public.

Is there anything which isn't private in the US?
Is there anything public?

 

[Estro Felino]

There should be an authority that protects consumers.
That provides consumers with affordable or free legal assistence.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Is there anything which isn't private in the US?
Is there anything public?

It is public.

The problem is that insidious declaration that corporations are actually 'people'.

Just about everyone knows who lobbied that one in.

 

[Heyo]

Is there anything which isn't private in the US?
Is there anything public?

They have some public broadcasting (PBS), a post office, and still public schools (despite the efforts of Betsy deVos). Waste management is public in some areas. So, yes, they have public services but less than we have in Europe and they rarely are state monopolies. But that is a trend we also have here in Germany. We have allowed competition and we have sold of (sometimes profitable) services.

 

[Estro Felino]

They have some public broadcasting (PBS), a post office, and still public schools (despite the efforts of Betsy deVos). Waste management is public in some areas. So, yes, they have public services but less than we have in Europe and they rarely are state monopolies. But that is a trend we also have here in Germany. We have allowed competition and we have sold of (sometimes profitable) services.

I was watching a video from an Italian economist, some days ago. Title: How twenty years of neo-liberism have undone Germany.
Americans call it liberalism or laissez-faire. The exact term is liberism. Or Liberismus in German.

 

[Heyo]

I was watching a video from an Italian economist, some days ago. Title: How twenty years of neo-liberism have undone Germany.
Americans call it liberalism or laissez-faire. The exact term is liberism. Or Liberismus in German.

I wouldn't say they neo libs have "undone" Germany but much has changed, something for the better, much for the worse.

 

[Estro Felino]

I wouldn't say they neo libs have "undone" Germany but much has changed, something for the better, much for the worse.

The Germany of the nineties, she meant.
What Germany used to be.

 

[RestlessSoul]

People need to stop buying unnecessary crap that falls apart shortly after purchase.

 

[PureX]

Expecting the government to protect us from corporate greed is like expecting Santa Claus to protect us from Christmas. It will never happen in the US. We are a nation built by greed. We consider it the highest virtue, and the fuel that "makes America great". Profiteering is a sacred quest, and if some people are robbed or hurt or killed in that quest, well too bad for them. It's "buyer beware". We don't want no stinking government agencies getting in the way of profits!