So. I’ve seen the some more news video as well as the Technology Connections one. I have not see the Unlearning Economics one (but it’s going on my docket for tomorrow).

Basically the Some more News video is just a simple overview on the concept of Planned Obsolescence i.e. the idea that some things are designed/engineered in a way so they will break easier/faster than they normally would or made in such a way that a repair is not economically viable so that instead of keeping/repairing a product a customer has to buy a new regularly.

One if the most famous and oldest examples is the lightbulb cartel where lightbulb manufacturer actually had a contract that limited how long a lightbulb would live to 1000h (including penalties if the manufacturers produced longer living bulbs). Iirc Cody mentioned that one in his video as well (I will watch all 3 vida back to back tomorrow just to straighten things out here).

Now this “Phoebus” cartel as it was called is exactly what the Technology Connections video is about. However Alecs point is a different one. He is basically saying that while it was true the cartel limited the Lifetime it also meant they were producing “better” bulbs. Namely ones that would burn brighter while using the same amount of power as ones that would last longer. His second point is that lightbulbs are more or less a “spare part” i.e. they are cheap and easy to replace (usually) so if one breaks you don’t have to throw away your nightlamp or whatever it is attached to you simply replace the bulb with a cheap replacement and you’re good.

So basically the Technology Connections Videos Thesis is the Phoebus Cartell wasn’t actually planned obsolescence but a move to a better lightbulb and a bit more runtime (2.5x in his example) isn’t worth the worse light output.