I have an issue I would like to discuss today, first I will pose a question to you and than I discuss my issue, so if my question seems obscure please keep reading and hopefully it should clear up and cause you to question more.
"Are there any other environmentalists out there who aren't hell bent on making corporations the out to be the sole bad guy in this new wave of environmental awareness?"
Basically I like I am sure other environmentalists have realized are usually lumped into the group of the anti-corporation groupie who wants to find someone to blame and who better but Walmart and Pfizer, the top producers of Chinese plastic trash and over priced prescription drugs!
But hey, these are corporations! The whole point of these companies is to make money so you can't get mad at group of people who have figured out a way to do that.
I won't discuss business practices, I am not talking about waste and dumping, I am talking about the tactics the company uses to become the "best," some of these companies are more like small governments rather than a company.
So who is to blame?
Well, you and me!
I know this may sound bad at first but please hang in there and I will explain.
These companies are there to make money, by making products that the customer wants and let's face it, it's pretty obvious that most people don't want to bother with their stuff, they would rather toss it and buy something new and cooler. There is a lot of buzz about engineered obsolesce and marketing manipulation and how companies use these as ways to "make" us buy more.
I would like to look at this issue with a slight twist, suppose that these companies are producing products that only last the average time that the average user has them and those that tend to hang on to their products for a while are the ones who notice this engineered obsolesce and those that toss their stuff for new stuff are just using it as a convenient excuse?
Be honest how many times have you bought something new to replace something you already had even though the old item was in perfect working order, it just didn't look like everyone else's?
What about market manipulation? Companies are also being accused of forcing us to buy the next cool new product. I like to site this example, take the Ipod everyones best friend, when this product first came out it was an overpriced MP3 player and nothing more, nobody wanted them but Apple continued to advertise them, everywhere (kind of like how Under Armour is doing now, except their product is already popular) and all of a sudden Ipod mania spread like wild fire.
I remember talking with someone who wanted an Ipod back when they had like 1GB as the largest memory capacity and I suggested that instead of him spending $600 on this that he should spend $300 on a palm pilot and not only will it do more but it will have removable memory, but no he had to have his Ipod.
So, is this an example of marketing manipulation, peer pressure or keeping up with the Joneses?
Take the Iphone as another example, before it came out analysts said it would flop, nobody would want it, it looked funny and it wasn't made all that well, plus the compression rate on the originals made the songs sound off to those with sensitive hearing. But... before Apple (aapl) released the Iphone their stock was in the high $80 range (because of the analysts suggestions, before the suggestions apple sock was almost $100 a share), now (01.11.08) Apple stock is $172 a share! I knew there was something I forgot to do in June "07, damn!
I digress, before the Iphone came out and soon after it"s release, it seemed everyone had to have one of these phones, I even talked to one lady who canceled her current contract and switched to AT&T so her and her daughter could get them before all of their friends.
This doesn't sound like market manipulation to me, it sounds like people trying to make their friends feel inferior to them, kinda makes you feel all warm and fuzzy doesn't it?
Let's now talk about engineered obsolesce, when was the last time you took an appliance in to have it fixed? It's just easy and well, cheaper to just toss the old one and then buy a newer one, isn't it? Be honest, we've all done it, I mean having the thing fixed would cost more than buying a new one anyway, right?
