Why do Americans throw out the old?

Question

If it's not broken, why do you have to replace it?

Answer 1

It's something we call "keeping up with the Jones" where if our neighbors get a new bigger television, we must get an even bigger one.

Its like a race to see who can be the best, sort of like the movie "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" where the two ladies are competing over who has the better lights.

Answer 2

People are very materialistic. A lot of it is the whole "Keeping up with the Joneses" idea, too, of wanting to have the best, one-upping your neighbors and such. It puts a whole lot of used items on the market, though, for people who are interested in saving money. There are a ridiculous number of used cars that one can buy and save thousands upon thousands of dollars on [practically] new cars! Check out craigslist.org for heaps of used items you can pick up for pennies on the dollar. I, being one who practically gets everything used, appreciate the savings out there caused by people always replacing their stuff.

Answer 3

It's not just Americans who throw out perfectly good products in favour of new ones. There are many other nations who follow suit too.

I think there are a few issues. We tend to be obsessed wtih newness, that is, if it's two or three years old it's old and no longer new it's time for a new one. That's not a rampant attitude but it certainly contributes to the problem.

More insidious however is marketing. We are assulted on a daily basis with advertising that promises to fix what ails us, promises to make us more sexy or elevate us above our peers, promises us the capabilities to perform miracles. Once in a while there is a product that in fact can do some of this, but it's rare. Still, with all those marketing assaults, is it any wonder that we develop all kinds of needs that we didn't even know we had?

The marketers also take great care about what is offered in a given product so that we can be conned into upgrading later. I recall buying a DVD years back that was meant for my market, it only plays NTCS commercial movies, when I try to use it for home grown movies or for films encoded in PAL it refuses to play them. Of course the box didn't tell me that when I bought it. I complained about that product and was told that this was a marketing decision and if I wanted more functionality I should buy a newer more expensive model. Alas, they too are restricted in what they will do, just less so. By contrast I decided to buy one for the Asian market, primarily China, that one plays all encodings, it plays all regions, and it plays all discs whether they're commercial or home grown DVDs or video CDs. The Asian market demands that so the manufacturers have to deliver if they're going to sell their products. On the other hand we don't demand that, we're quite happy to acquire a single function device and then replace it two or three years later to gain functionality we should have had initially for the same price.

The marketers also are careful of timing. Often a new product is ready to go out the door but they'll hold off sometimes for six months, sometimes for a year. What they're waiting for is the market getting saturated with the current one first. That way they can then launch the new product with additional compelling features they could have included in the first place, and thus force us all to upgrade yet again to finally get the functionality we wanted in the first place.

And then there's also the obsolesence question which is often only part of the fault of the marketers. Eventually there comes a new technology that is so different that it's very hard to maintain compatibility with the past. I spent thousands over two decades acquiring lenses for my film SLR to improve my photographic capabilities. And they did help a lot. However, to my horror, when I finally went digital I discovered that all of my lenses would no longer attach to my camera body, they were essentially obsolete and if I wanted the functionality in the new digital world I'd have to buy them all over again even though they're in perfect condition. There is one maker who retains compatilibity but alas, in my film days I didn't buy into that one and the compatibility is limited anyway.

There's the "keep up with the Joneses" too. You acquire some new gizmo and suddenly you're the talk of the area which frankly, feels good of course. It gets you a lot of admiration and attention as everyone wants to fondle the new gadget. But that fame is fleeting because sooner or later someone else is going to buy the latest model and suddenly you evaporate into obscurity as everyone gravitates to the new gizmo. What to do? Well the only thing to do, if you need that kind of attention, is to now wait for the next model to come out and buy that.

Finally there's obsolescence from a different perspective too. Many products are no longer designed to last and in fact most products aren't even designed to be repairable. Manufacturers plan a product life cycle that ensures their products will fail within a reasonable period of time so that you'll have to buy yet another. I tend to try to fix things when they break. Thirty years ago that was simple, a fix was sometimes only a fifteen minute exercise and when I needed parts they were very inexpensive and easily obtained too. Today parts are almost impossible to find anywhere and often the way the product is assembled it's impossible to replace the broken component even if you could get the part. This too contributes to people replacing their products, often a product still works but one function has ceased to operate and is making teh consumer increasingly more irritable. Since it can't be fixed or would cost more to fix than to replace the product, it too goes into the garbage in favour of a new one. Thirty years ago it was not unusual to find a thirty or forty year old fridge and when it happened to fail it was really cheap to fix. Today fridges are expected to last only seven to ten years and at that point you're advised to replace it instead of fixing it.

So those are some of the reasons behind people buying new models all the time.

What's the solution? I guess first of all get rid of the marketers, they're an evil we could well do without expecially in this era of trying to become green and deal with global warming. Secondly, try to educte people to buy more wisely, help them understand what is available in other markets and through this get them to acquire the features they need today rather than being forced to upgrade a few times to get them eventually. Thirdly, change the attitudes of society from one of admiring someone with the latest gadget to admiring someone who hangs on to their product to the bitter end. That kind of a change would have a dramatic impact too.

And what is the cost of this? Well, that's the scary part. At the moment we have a land fill problem and a serious wasted energy problem but in return we have a booming economy. To solve the waste problem we have to accept a much more depressed economy because our economies are built on the premise of constant ongoing growth, something you cannot achieve unless people do continually replace what they have with a new one. That's the meaning behind the word "consumer", a word I think is insulting to us all. Our sole purpose in life as far as the economy is concerned is to constantly consume ever mroe product even if that means throwing out perfectly good functioning things.

So at the moment everyone is employed making new gadgets and being employed they then buy them too which in turn keeps them employed as our world fills with ever more garbage. In a different world, perhaps a better world, there will be a lot of unemployment as deamnd for gizmos drops dramatically and as the manufacturers build more functionality and quality into what they do offer. With the unemployment our taxes have to go up to sustain the unemployed and there will be fewer people buying new gizmos. But on the positive side we'd save a hell of a lot of resources and keep our planet cleaner.

Which is better? I don't know. Naturally I'd prefer the second option but at the same time I'd also feel very sorry for the unemployed. I guess which is better will depend on individual values. Do have a super day.

Answer 4

to bring in the new?