Planned Obsolescence

by Hugh Mungus

Turn off your television sets. [...] Turn them off, and leave them off! Turn them off right in the middle of this sentence I'm speaking to you now! Turn them off!

- Howard Beale

Your vibrator broke moments before orgasm. Your chainsaw cut out in the middle of a tri-state killing spree. The burners at your meth lab stopped working hours before a shipment deadline. Your gun jammed during a drive-by shooting.

These types of events happen to us all, and we never question why products don't simply work for centuries. Again, the monetary system is to blame here. Think about it. If you bought a television set that lasted 100 years, you'd never need to purchase another. As a result, TV manufacturers wouldn't be the gluttonous, controlling conglomerates they are today.

It's called planned obsolescence, and it means companies produce goods designed to break down on you - the consumer. If that isn't the epitome of conniving, what is? Yet, you support these calculating corporations by purchasing their products.

Is it possible to produce a refrigerator that would chill food for 75 years, without having to be replaced? Well, some disgustingly affluent assholes built a thriving ski resort - including mountains and snow - in one of the hottest deserts on the planet. Seems the three quarter century fridge would be child's play.

Provided the contemporary degree of human technology, it's been proven products we purchase every day could last several times as long as they currently do.

Companies - big and small - will bombard you with slogans the likes of, "We care about you," "The customer is our bottom line," and "If you're not satisfied, neither are we."

In reality, these businesses don't give a damn about you, and the proof - via pricing - is right there in front of your eyes. Items that cost $5.99, $10.99, $29.99 are evidence whomever's hawking them is swindling the consumer before he's even purchased anything. That alone should make one skeptical regarding the quality of the products being bought.

Affixing 99 cents to the end of a price is obviously a mendacious method to trick customers into thinking they're paying less for something. A product costing $8.00 initially looks more expensive than one selling for $7.99. Yet, there's a one cent difference in price, and the consumer falsely views the latter as being $7.00, as opposed to $8.00.

The above is a marketing scam employed by companies ubiquitously. It's proof corporations informing you, "Your safety is our main concern," could care less whether you were about to drive off a cliff, so long as you continued buying their product.

Even so, consumers allow themselves to be abused in this manner all the time, foolishly believing companies are worried about their welfare.

"The economy is horrible!"

How many times have you heard the above?

In this paradigm, the aforementioned assertion is delusional.

"How can this be, when people are struggling to make ends meet?"

Wish I could say I'm sorry to break it to ya', but there never has been - throughout recorded history - an economy.

We're all brainwashed to believe we exist, thanks to this fictional idea. Few of us have researched what economy - or economic - means. Take two minutes to look up the latter, which is defined as: "frugality" or "to be frugal."

There's nothing thrifty about a system based in debt - which is what money is. You give me a stereo, and I give you a bunch of intrinsically useless textile; i.e. cash. I can listen to said stereo, play CDs on it, inform myself via radio stations, but you've got a pile of worthless cloth you can stare at, should the monetary system no longer exist tomorrow. Can't listen to it, as it doesn't emit broadcasts. Can't play music on it, nor use it as a source of education.

In short, you're in debt - again, what money is. Since the system we're toiling in is founded on money, all of us are continuously in arrears. Because the word economic, from whence "economy" is derived, has been defined as frugality - thus the opposite of debt - there is no economy.

Yes, that means studying to be an economist is pursuit of a career that doesn't exist.

"Well, the economy will bounce back."

How can something that fails to be, bounce back?

"With the poor state of the economy, I can't afford to refinance right now."

If something isn't real, how can it be in any state at all?

"The economy was better when Clinton was in office."

What the fuck-?!

What's economical about creating a wealth of products - as with planned obsolescence - designed to break down?

Pound this truth into your skulls: As long as you provide valueless pieces of cloth, in exchange for items which have palpable uses, you're dealing in debt. In debt, there is nothing economic. Thus, there is no - and as long as you can remember - never has been, an economy. Again, something the powers you're allowing to be don't want you to know.

According to late "economist" Milton Friedman:

The pieces of green paper [money] have value because everybody thinks they have value.

If that isn't delusional, what the fuck is?!?


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