Planned Obsolescence Sucks. Here's Why It Still Exists.

Why (and how) Planned Obsolescence and Capitalism make terrible products.

Help Our Changing Climate make more videos like this by supporting them on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/OurChangingClimate 

"In this Our Changing Climate climate change video essay, I look at why planned obsolescence happens and how planned obsolescence creates waste and emissions. Specifically, I show how planned obsolescence is a symptom of late-stage capitalism and how companies like Apple use perceived and planned obsolescence to make customers buy more of their products.

Apple uses planned obsolescence in their batteries and hardware to the extent that once their warranty is up, their devices generally begin to fail. Apple has been sued numerous times for planned obsolescence by Right to Repair campaigns and governments like France claiming that Apple slows down their iPhones, makes it hard to repair iPhones, and generally making iPhones and Mac computers with shorter lifespans. Planned obsolescence is a symptom of late-stage capitalism that pervades a lot of big corporations because it means more consumption ultimately more profit." 

Consumerism   Corporations   Economics   Sustainability   Technology & Design
Rate this video 
Racism is a Strategy to Divide & Conquer the Working Class
Double Down News
Trending Videos
Project 2025 Explained in Schoolhouse Rock Style!
5 min - The song that could save America. Share widely. Written, animated and performed by Jason KravitsProduced and mixed by Sean Dixon with Jason Kravits, Christopher Walz, and Brian O’Neill
Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980)
780 min - Astronomer Carl Sagan's landmark 13-part science series takes you on an awe-inspiring cosmic journey to the edge of the Universe and back aboard the spaceship of the imagination.The series was...
How Wolves Change Rivers | George Monbiot
4 min - When wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the United States after being absent nearly 70 years, the most remarkable "trophic cascade" occurred. What is a trophic cascade and...
They Voted for Trump. Here’s Why They Feel Betrayed
8 min - Two-thirds of people in California’s 22nd Congressional district rely on Medicaid. But the majority of the district also voted to elect President Trump in 2024. We went to talk to residents to see...
"Murder the Truth": David Enrich on Right-Wing Campaign to Silence Journalism & Protect the Powerful
20 min - The new book Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful by The New York Times business investigations editor David Enrich chronicles an ongoing...
The Great Disconnect (2020)
60 min - We are living in a time that has been described as the age of loneliness. Despite Western advances in technology, living conditions, education and healthcare, we, as a society, are isolating...
How Fascism WON in America
32 min - Donald Trump’s second inauguration marks a turning point: for the first time, Americans knowingly voted for an openly authoritarian leader—not in spite of his fascism, but because of it. How did...
Trending Articles
Documentaries by One of Our Heroes, John Pilger (Rest in Peace)
Films for a Wiser Earth
Subscribe for $5/mo to Watch over 50 Patron-Exclusive Films
Subscribe $5/mo View All Patron Films

 

Your support keeps us ad-free and financially independent

Our 10,000+ video & article library is 99% free, ad-free, and entirely community-funded thanks to our patron subscribers!


Want to donate extra? You can subscribe and donate an extra $5/mo or more.