The idea for the movie is decent. The examples they are based on, however, just feel very weak.
It is VERY well known that a long-life incandescent light bulb produces worse light and wastes electricity and therefore a costumer will be worse off buying a long-life bulb due to paying more for electricity! As to whether there was an actual conspiracy, I don't know, but in the end the consumer benefited.
The printer example? I don't really buy it either since it looks like the printer company simply took the easy way out in dealing with this ink sponge problem which most consumers might not run into anyway, rather than "planned obsolescence". If people want to print a large amount of documents, aren't laser printers more economical anyway? And don't the printer companies make most of their profit from ink rather than the inkjet printers themselves? Perhaps a better example would of been the link of often programmed wasteful use of ink and high ink prices.
It is VERY well known that a long-life incandescent light bulb produces worse light and wastes electricity and therefore a costumer will be worse off buying a long-life bulb due to paying more for electricity! As to whether there was an actual conspiracy, I don't know, but in the end the consumer benefited.
The printer example? I don't really buy it either since it looks like the printer company simply took the easy way out in dealing with this ink sponge problem which most consumers might not run into anyway, rather than "planned obsolescence". If people want to print a large amount of documents, aren't laser printers more economical anyway? And don't the printer companies make most of their profit from ink rather than the inkjet printers themselves? Perhaps a better example would of been the link of often programmed wasteful use of ink and high ink prices.