Do you ever wonder why you have to replace a perfectly good smartphone after a software update? Do things in your home seem to fall apart before their time? Was your grandpa right when he said "They just don't make 'em like the used to?"
If you think that somewhere, someone is making some of the products you buy wear out on purpose, you're not crazy. They are. It's called planned obsolescence.
SOURCES
The Waste Makers by Vance Packard
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/250912.The_Waste_Makers
The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy by Markus Krajewski
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/dawn-of-electronics/the-great-lightbulb-conspiracy
The Story Behind The Story Behind "The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy" by Jean Kumagai
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/geek-life/history/the-story-behind-the-story-behind-the-great-lightbulb-conspiracy
Farmers Fight John Deere Over Who Gets to Fix an $800,000 Tractor by Peter Waldman and Lydia Mulvany
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-03-05/farmers-fight-john-deere-over-who-gets-to-fix-an-800-000-tractor
We Can't Let John Deere Destroy the Very Idea of Ownership by Kyle Wiens
https://www.wired.com/2015/04/dmca-ownership-john-deere/
Why American Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors With Ukrainian Firmware by Jason Koebler
https://www.vice.com/en/article/xykkkd/why-american-farmers-are-hacking-their-tractors-with-ukrainian-firmware
