Book Review: Made to Break
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07.16.07
"Why is it prohibited? asked the savage....The controller shrugged his shoulders. "Because it is old, that's the chief reason. We haven't any use for old things here."
"Even when they are beautiful?"
"Particularly when they are beautiful. Beauty's attractive, and we don't want people attracted by old things. We want them to like new ones."
Giles Slade quotes Aldous Huxley from Brave New World's brilliant attack on consumerism, in "Made to Break": Technology and Obsolescence in America, about the design and marketing of goods to encourage their replacement. George Bush was not far off when asked what people should do after 9/11, he said "go shopping." -that has been the message in America since World War 1, when store keepers put up signs saying "Clear the Track for Prosperity." Building to last was counterproductive, as Henry Ford learned at great cost from General Motors, who introduced annual model changes and almost wiped him out. From its beginnings in shirt collars and razor blades, our disposable culture with rapidly changing styles and technology is creating a mountain of waste that will bury us.
Slade was asked by a reviewer at Grist: How do we undo this cycle of consumption? "A lot of really sophisticated people devoted a lot of time and thought to developing this system," he says. "We need to look at the problem creatively and rethink it. Our whole economy is based on buying, trashing, and buying again. We need to rethink industrial design." ...
The book that explains what motivates us to buy new things; It is perhaps a bit weak in the later sections about modern technology and computers in particular, but nobody can argue with his conclusion "The golden age of obsolescence -- the heyday of nylons, tailfins, and transistor radios -- will go the way of the buffalo." ::Made to Break
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I haven't read the book, but I wonder if it is really about "undo this cycle of consumption"... As McDonough & Braungart so aptly put it, it shouldn't have to be a problem to consume (they point to the example of ants, which consume biomass faster than humans even though they are 4x as many (in mass!))...
Personally I think sustainability is not just about durable products, but also about degradable products!
I agree with Ewout, it is about producing Natural and Technical Nutrients. and this ones to be consumed over and over.
Many people think that Sustainable "Things" should Last a long time, Technical Nutrienyt should, but there are also Things, Natural Nutrients, that last not even days.
Cradle To Cradle is the only sustainable philosophy that requires that people keep the economy working similar to the way is working now.
The solution is not "less is better".
I agree with the commenter above. Like it or not, we live in a society that is rabid for newness. Sure, we can create products that will last for generations. But will people keep them that long, or will we just end up with mountains of solidly-built products lasting and lasting and lasting in landfills for generations?
Unless the mindset of culture reverses, which seems highly unlikely to me, it would be better to build disposable products that biodegrade and feed the earth, so that people can continue to feed their own shopping habits. Is that co-dependent? Maybe. But I also think it's a lot more practical than wishing and hoping that millions of people will change over night.
As George Monbiot says, we should be more materialistic, ie have more respect for the things we use.
I bought this book and it is a great summary of some of the processes involved in selling stuff. Here's a quote (from the SIlicon Valley Toxics coalition):
"Where once consumers purchased a stereo console or televison set with the expectation that it would last for a decade or more, the increasingly rapid evolution of technology has effectively rendered everything 'disposable'"
Design and designers speed up this trend by meaking products more attractive and usable, and then making the next generation even more attractive and usable.
Perhaps manufacturers should be banned from releasing a product until it is a mature design??
Anyone remember "The Waste Makers" by Vance Packard?
The problem is big business and big business marketing, not some intractable culture of "consumption." Either we confront our overclass, who pushes all this and plans the obsolescence, or we're screwed. "Consumer" is an insult!