Designed Obsolescence
Designed Obsolescence should be obsolete. Think about it. We have cars that were built in the 1950′s that are still on the road (with proper care and maintenance); Houses built in the 1890′s that are solid and true today as they were when built; Furniture that dates to the 1700′s still fully functioning.
One might think, and I do think, that with this technological ability, with technology advancing as it has, we’d be able to buy a sofa that would last more than three years or a washer that would last more than two.
My wife and I bought a new Sectional Sofa from Sears three years ago. It’s shot, kaput! When I was in another furniture store last week asking about a sofa they had, the salesman listened to me rail about Sears and he asked, “Did you get the extended warranty?” – WHAT? Why the hell should I spend another $200-300 for an extended warranty on something that should last at least 5 years. The sales guy was less sympathetic towards me after my rant about extended warranties.
We bought a new washer and dryer two years ago, one of those front-loading things with the Eco this and turbo-spin that. Followed all the directions from Frigidaire and from where we bought it from, Leon’s. Wiped out the bottom after every wash, dried the gasket thing that keeps water from leaking out the front of it. Now two years later, the gasket is black and my wife is yelling about her towels getting ruined. Call the repair place, $450 minimum. A new washer is $900.
This leads me to designed obsolescence. For the price of these items that one has to pay, one would think you get something that would last longer than the manufacturer’s warranty. Why is that these things don’t. You could argue quality control, with outsourcing to places like China or India for production. That argument fails with me as the sofa was made in Ontario. Psst… Us Canadians can make crap too. One could also argue that we bought a cheap line that was meant to fail. I don’t consider what we paid for the two different items cheap. Middle of the line perhaps. No excuse. A product should last more than a couple of years.
To me, just as the products could be designed today could outlast their counterparts made 10, 20, 50 or 100 years ago, most products are being designed to fail after just a couple of years so that us consumers can get sucked into spending more money on crap designed to fail even sooner. No more I say. I am tired of getting soaked by these companies for crap products that companies don’t stand buy unless… I buy an extended warranty.
Friends of ours have a dishwasher and are going through this as well. It was bought at The Bay and they did get sucked into the extended warranty for their Maytag (English word for JUNK). Their dishwasher died 19 months after buying it, and when they thought they were getting a replacement, they were given a cheque PRORATED for the extended warranty. Extended warranty didn’t even pay half of the replacement cost for their new dishwasher. They wont deal with the Bay anymore, and I don’t blame them.
I have no solution to this problem other than making things out of concrete blocks and rant about the companies above. I haven’t sold my wife on the idea of a concrete block and 2×8 sofa yet, but it will be more comfortable than the piece of crap we bought from Sears Canada.
Disclaimer: By my naming Sears, The Bay and Leon’s as purveyors of crap, I am not excluding that other companies dont’ sell crap, just that I have not had the misfortune of buying crap from them.
Why our kids don’t know Canadian History…
Do you know why? Partly our education system is to blame as it places emphasis more on computers and less on social studies.
Partly is thanks to our multi-channel universe where we have niche TV channels that cater to such fragmented segments of the market that there are no “broad-strokes” painted where people might just exposed to something different. What’s the viewership of the CBC like now that you can watch Retro-Teletoon, Teletoon, Cartoon Network, Teen Cartoon Network, Nick Kids, Bob Kids, Boo this and so on??? Not so great. It’s pretty sad when those old Hinterland “Who’s Who” commercials are run as for a gag like old Soap Commercials instead of for their education values.
One of the biggest issues is what I saw today in a Chapters Book Store in Ottawa. A big huge book store with racks of magazines (four double-sided 40 foot long racks, seven feet high), large sections dedicated to this segment or that. Books for those on a budget, lots of fiction, business, self-help books, books to help you pick self-help books, you name it. There kids section that looks more like a high-end toy store than a book store, a big music section (people still buy CD’s?) and then the history section. This is the section that I always gravitate to and here is what I saw:
Three, count them three, four foot wide shelves on one book case with Canadian History… That’s it. Just three. The two selves underneath were part of a more general history (US). 12 feet of Canadian History. Now I know for a fact there are more than 12 feet of Canadian History books written; this was just insulting. More so when I started comparing. Five 5-shelf book cases dedicated to US History or, 100 feet; Three 5-shelf book cases dedicated to World Wars One and Two (US and British, one book was Canadian) or, 60 Feet.
I thought, “This can’t be right?” So I looked around more. Chapters has things segmented so finitely that there was a “Political Science” section, eight more feet of Canadiana. Not bad, that brings use to 20 feet total but oh wait, there’s 80 more feet of US Political Science including four feet dedicated to Barack Obama.
I counted only three titles in the sections on our current or former Prime Ministers, Harper, Chretien and Trudeau, and I ran out of fingers and toes to count on for the US Presidents. Heck there were more on British Prime Ministers (4) than Canadian ones and this book store is in OTTAWA ONTARIO CANADA!!! The Nations Capital!!!
Not to beat a now dead horse called “Canadian History”, I looked at some of the “HOT” titles. Eight Feet of Books on, about or by Celeb Chef Jamie Oliver, 10 feet on Gordon Ramsay. 10 feet on Oprah, six on how to build a deck, 24 feet on Pokemon and 30 feet on how to get the rock hard abs I’ve always wanted (unlike the keg I have now).
So to quote Sybil Fawlty, “what does it all mean Basil?” What does this all mean? I am not saying that the country will lose it’s identity by people shopping at Chapters, however their lack of exposure and promotion of Canadian History means collectively we lose one more chance to hook someone into learning more about our country. Chapters stores and their parent Chapters-Indigo own Smith Books, Coles, Chapters and Indigo or in otherwords a virtual monopoly on the bookstore front. With the exception of the odd independent bookseller, there is no other player except for the Internet. What they (Chapters) puts on the shelves is what people see, period!
That’s one more reason why we have less and less younger people every November 11th at a cenotaph;
One more reason why the maple leaf is more a fashion statement than a source of pride in our country;
One more person who can rhyme off who the last 10 Presidents of the United States were but can’t say who our Prime Minister is.
Sad, eh.
$500,000,000 does not equal $15,000,000,000
Filed under: Government, History, Hockey, Media, Ontario, Politics
It was posted in several places including TSN and in the Toronto Star that Dalton McGuinty supports a third NHL team in Ontario. Great. Thanks McGuinty. As usual you spend lots of time dealing with stuff that DOESN’T MATTER and not deal with what is really important like the economy, jobs or oh… I don’t know. How the Finance Minister budgeted for a $500M deficit and now we’re heading for a $15B deficit.
Perhaps Mr. McGuinty should have paid attention in math class. $500,000,000 does not equal $15,000,000,000
Local TV in the Crapper?
Filed under: General, Government, Media, Ontario, TV
CTV wants to shut down CKNX-TV and CHWI-TV because they are losing too much money. Whatever happened to local TV? It used to be said that a TV or a Radio Station was a licence to print money. It still could be if run right. I put this failure not at local advertisers not buying, but corporate management. Look at the model for small market radio and TV in the US. They roll with the punches and create innovative, cost effective packages that will sell. They know to run their stations like small town stations because they ARE small town stations. When you have a large market station group setting policy to small market stations, you are destined to fail. These stations should be kept and sold to local interests for cheap. CTVGlobemedia would still see the benefit of not having the assets on the books and the communities would still retain their stations.
Is anyone honestly telling me that CHWI in Windsor, right across the river from Detroit, cannot get some advertisers?
Instead I think this is pure posturing by CTV and Global with their secondary market TV group “E” to take their bad decisions, blame the market and go to the CRTC with cap-in-hand looking for massive rule changes. The CRTC should make them sell the companies to groups that will run them and want them.