Lightbulb Conspiracy

This week in social studies class we started watching a documentary called The Lightbulb Conspiracy. The film basically showed us the history of planned obsolescence and the struggle to end it. The movie showed us how the oldest lightbulb has lasted 100 years, it was produced in Ohio and invented to last. A lightbulb like this, of course, was not profitable because it lasted too long, it was too good. So the companies built a cartel around it, they started producing lightbulbs that don't last as much, so people have to keep buying them again and again. 
The video also talked about the printers and nylon stockings. The printers that are designed by engineers with a chip to stop functioning after a certain number of impressions. Or the nylon stockings which were a great invention at first but because of planned obsolescence that started making weaker fibers. We saw all about the ethical debate around this. The film said, " An article that refuses to wear out is a tragedy for business." It also talked about how they wanted to make planned obsolescence a law but at last they opted for making it a cultural thing and "seduce" people with products. Planned obsolescence is something that still exists today in the world and from one part people say it generates work and all that. But on the other hand it makes people slaves of the economic system because they won't ever stop buying things that won't last and paying money for a bad product is kind of unfair.