Made to break

Planned obsolesce has become so entrenched in our culture that it occurs even in things that we don't normally recognize. Today is Halloween and we are bombarded with images of what is the "hot" costume of this year. Why should there be any "hot" costumes at all? Isn't it just fun to get dressed up as something and go out begging for free candy? Instead, children's costumes are based on the hot movie of the year, whether it was a movie that was appropriate for them in the first place, and there are more packaged Iron Mans, Wonder Womans, and Spider Mans out there than the costumes that could be created from things around the house like tramps, witches, or football players. I get more of a thrill from the clever child who stuffed himself into a dollar store laundry bag and hung dirty socks around his head with a pillow case to carry his loot than I do watching overly muscular Batmans flexing with plastic Halloween themed bags coming to collect my Hersheys and Kit Kats.

For Brooke Stevens, Halloween must be a culmination of some of his ideas penetrating markets he didn't even imagine. He says, "Planned obsolesce,...was simply psychological obsolescence, not product death dating. It grew out of "the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than necessary. In particular, he was fond of claiming that obsolescence stimulates the economy."(153) I believe that he touched upon a psychological phenomenon that he created to spur on the business world that has become so much a part of our society that government supports the idea as the magic bullet to get us out of our current dismal economic situation. Again and again, we try to stimulate the economy with the hope that by giving people more opportunity to spend on things they don't need, we will recover our jobs and reduce unemployment, buoy the stock market, and recreate some of the small businesses that have closed. The problem is that the remedy chosen by our economists is not working, so now what do we do? The desire to own all the newer and better things still exists but so does the massive debt that our nation and individuals accrue. And because of our desire to want and get more as a society, we make less, own less of anything of quality, and owe more. College students who graduate with so much debt now and have no way to pay it back without getting a six figure job upon graduation are commonplace, but the six figure jobs are not. Somehow our culture has to stop encouraging consumption for consumption's sake and go back to some of the Depression era savings ideas. Until then, I expect to see many more college graduates working 2 or 3 minimum wage jobs to keep buying the next ipod or new cell phone in order to feed their habits.