This, in my opinion, is one of the many big problems with capitalism. How many different products have had quality reduced just so you will have to keep buying them again and again, I wonder.
What if these light bulb manufacturers, instead of being entirely profit driven, had focused on research and development in the 1920s instead? I believe that we would have bulbs that would never fail at this point.
This logic applies to so many things in which capitalism has only delivered inferior products to what was being produced half a century ago by companies that took pride in the products they produced. Those companies were swallowed up by multi-national corporations and now we live in a Wal-mart world where you will be hard pressed to find a product that will still be functional in a couple years.
Don't get me wrong here. I am not touting socialisms ability to move humanity forward any better than capitalism. It seems to me we need some sort of happy medium between the two with sound science and forward thinking guiding it.
In my opinion we really need to evolve beyond the black and white socialism vs capitalism dynamic as soon as possible. Too much of either has proven disastrous time and time again.
It's not a problem with capitalism, it's a problem with corporatism & monopolies. In an ideal economy, there would be so much competition that the invisible hand would sort it out.
Also information asymmetry. Capitalism is rife with exploiting unaware consumers. If you displayed the "lifetime cost" of light bulbs or any other product then consumers are less likely to pick planned obsolesce products.
It's like the inkjet printer model. Consumers get lured in by a $100 printer that does everything. And when it runs out of ink 4 weeks later they have to spend $60 on ink. And then do it again in 3 months.
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Kal ago
This, in my opinion, is one of the many big problems with capitalism. How many different products have had quality reduced just so you will have to keep buying them again and again, I wonder.
What if these light bulb manufacturers, instead of being entirely profit driven, had focused on research and development in the 1920s instead? I believe that we would have bulbs that would never fail at this point.
This logic applies to so many things in which capitalism has only delivered inferior products to what was being produced half a century ago by companies that took pride in the products they produced. Those companies were swallowed up by multi-national corporations and now we live in a Wal-mart world where you will be hard pressed to find a product that will still be functional in a couple years.
Don't get me wrong here. I am not touting socialisms ability to move humanity forward any better than capitalism. It seems to me we need some sort of happy medium between the two with sound science and forward thinking guiding it.
In my opinion we really need to evolve beyond the black and white socialism vs capitalism dynamic as soon as possible. Too much of either has proven disastrous time and time again.
selpai ago
It's not a problem with capitalism, it's a problem with corporatism & monopolies. In an ideal economy, there would be so much competition that the invisible hand would sort it out.
Mylon ago
Also information asymmetry. Capitalism is rife with exploiting unaware consumers. If you displayed the "lifetime cost" of light bulbs or any other product then consumers are less likely to pick planned obsolesce products.
It's like the inkjet printer model. Consumers get lured in by a $100 printer that does everything. And when it runs out of ink 4 weeks later they have to spend $60 on ink. And then do it again in 3 months.