The story of stuff

One of the main things that stood out to me when watching the story of stuff was the idea of planned obsolescence (the way things are made so that they have to be thrown out and replaced far too often!). And I realised that this is happening more and more often with our stuff, especially now that technology is improving so rapidly. Like if you think about some of the older appliances your parents or grandparents have, they’ve had them for years and years, decades even, and they’re still going strong! But now days, when you purchase a new washing machine, computer or microwave, you usually end up replacing it within a few years, or paying about the price of a new one to have it fixed! And it’s just so the produces of the products can keep making money (not that they really need anymore either!). And what do you do with all your old stuff when you replace it…toss it away. So can we really blame the public for polluting the earth by throwing away all thier old stuff? If things were made to last longer, then there would be less pollution because less things would be thrown out! But then again, if people don’t need to keep buying things that’s going to put a lot of people out of work! And this leads into perceived obsolescence (when you replace your old stuff to keep up with trends, even though its still working, like buying the latest cell phone). You don’t want to be known as the person who can’t keep up with everyone else, do you? So we seem to be stuck in a vicious cycle where we throw out all our old, trusty stuff, in favour of the newer, more modern looking stuff, only to be replacing it (whether or not we need to) every few years, and we can’t seem to be able to stop!