Planned Obsolescence

Planned Obsolescence is a recent and hideous idea that was never even considered in business practices until the early 1900’s. It wastes our resources, time, and money. It benefits nobody but criminals and greedy corporate profiteers.

Its origin is a dark chapter in our history. On December 23, 1924, a group of leaders from the world’s major light bulb manufacturers met in Geneva, Switzerland to exchange ideas on business practices. These included Germany’s Osram, the Netherlands’ Philips, France’s Compagnie des Lampes, and the United States’ General Electric. Together, they founded the Phoebus cartel, a global supervisory body created to monitor the world’s light bulb markets and assign regional zones and production quotas for the manufacturers.

The cartel’s legacy was to develop shorter life spans for household incandescent bulbs—from the current 1500-2000 hours down to 1000. In addition, the new bulbs were priced higher and claimed to be of better quality.

The light bulb companies often cheated to inflate their profits with longer lasting bulbs and exceeding their sales quotas. They also suffered losses once the public observed their plan. In the 1940’s, the U. S. government investigated GE and its partners for anticompetitive practicies. Since then, new technologies have made incandescent bulbs mostly obsolete.

Today, planned Obsolescence has become high tech with software to do the dirty work. Look out when anybody attempts to sell you the latest upgrade on any electronic device—especially computers, phones, and automobiles.

The use of software to monopolize the installation of new parts for repairs is a program called PARTS PAIRING, invented by Apple, who has been described as “a real leader in the anti-repair space.” Apple has previously been noted for devious practices like gluing in batteries so they are difficult for owners to replace and using proprietary screws to foil opening their phones. Obviously, Apple has been accused of using planned obsolescence to force users to buy new iPhones. As it develops new models, it keeps “updating” the older ones to slow them down. At first, the updates were optional, but after users wised up to them, they became automatic, and usually at night unless the owners turned their phones off. The practice has been called “Batterygate.”

Apple has also attempted to make it difficult for third party shops to repair its phones and to limit generic parts for them. This has been called “serialization.”

Apple has also created incompatability between their newer and older products. This might prod some users to buy new Apple phones, but it upsets others into buying Samsung or another brand. Once the new Tesla Pi Phone reaches the market, Apple will soon be crying crocodile tears, and its stock is expected to plummet.

Microsoft is also guilty. Bill Gates began monopolistic schemes as soon as he purchased the fundamental MS-DOS operating system for a “song” and then copyrighted it to prevent competitors from using it as a basis to develop their own systems. He also rigged up schemes to prevent, or at least restrict people from using competing software. In barely a few years, nearly every home computer required MS-DOS just to operate.

In the late 1990’s, gates began Windows, and as soon as large numbers of people fell for his siren song of “Anybody can open our Windows,” Gates began a series of “upgrades.” In 2001, he released Windows XP, which was one of the best versions made—according to some users—THE best version. It was very simple to use, and its size was also small and loaded quickly. Windows XP worked fine up until 2009 without any problems.

On October 22, 2009, Gates launched Windows 7. Like XP, it also worked well. From there, things went downhill.

At that point, Gates should have retained these two versions and supported them. But instead, he continued his greedy practice of new “upgrades” to sell more software and also more computers. Windows 8 was a flop. Windows 9, not much better. Windows 10 is marginally satisfactory, and that is what most people use today. But some people have continued using windows 7 for years and were happy with it, until it was no longer supported. About the middle of January, 2025, e-mails (Google, Yahoo, etc.) stopped working with it. Users were all obligated to get Windows 10 or higher just to read and send their e-mails.

For many years, the John Deere company was ranked as one of the top manufacturers of sturdy and dependable tractors and other farm equipment. Even today, we can see still-working examples up to 80 years old and beyond.

But in recent years its management has become very greedy and has constructed high-tech software to monopolize its service and repairs.

Walter Schweitzer, a third generation farmer, has had a bellyful of the restrictions and mandates imposed upon his new John Deere tractor—problems the company itself had contrived to generate more profit at the expense of the farmers. On random occasions, it would suddenly shut down in the middle of a job. After performing the logical fixes, like changing the fuel filter, and finding them all in vain, he called the John Deere mechanic. He said, “Really, the only way we can figure this out is to hook up a computer and download the error codes.”

Right there, Walter saw a serious red flag—why would such a simple problem require a computer? He then said, “All right, can I come in and borrow it?”

“Oh no, we don’t do that.”

“Okay, could I rent it?

“No, we don’t do that either”

The John Deere mechanic told Walter he couldn’t fix his tractor until a week later. Walter had hay ready to bale, and at a critical time. If he was delayed for as little as a day, and it rained a little bit, his hay would be spoiled and therefore lost.

For simple problems like this, John Deere has cost its customers billions of dollars in lost income. It does not approve of its customers fixing their own tractors and equipment. They have to get approval from the company. Only the company’s representatives are allowed to do repairs—ANY repairs—even an oil change. Only the company has the computers and software required to program and de-program a tractor’s internal computers. Only the company’s official parts are allowed. The equipment’s own software shuts it down if any “unauthorized” mechanic or farmer attempts even a simple maintenance proceedure. Today, John Deere argues that the farmers don’t even own the tractors that they had bought and paid for.

In addition to a week’s delay and the risk of spoiling his crop, Walter had to shell out $160 for the needed part (a faulty sensor) and $300 for the two man-hours to install it. But the total bill was almost $5000. For WHAT? Corporate greed vs the American farmers?

John Deere’s profits have increased by 61% over the past few years, and its CEO’s salary increased by 160%—to $26.8 MILLION.

Violating the American farmers in this manner is a crime of unprecedented proportions. Our farmers are among the most vital workers we have to keep our economy afloat. If they are unable to survive abuse like this and are bankrupted out of business, we would be unable to produce food and fiber to the point of collapsing into a third world nation. Without our farmers, we could end up a vassal state under the thumbs of China and others for support. In essence, John Deere’s actions are an act of TREASON.

Today, farmers have passed multiple class action lawsuits against John Deere, claiming their repair monopoly violates the Sherman Antitrust Act. The Freeedom to Repair Act would permanently amend the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and protect everybody’s right to repair. We are also working to pass and support right to repair laws in every state. Right now, 30 states, including Alabama, are already busy with it.

SOURCES

1. Krajewski, Markus, The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy, IEEE Spectrum, Sep 24, 2014. https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-great-lightbulb-conspiracy

2. More Perfect Union, How John Deere Robs Farmers Of $4 Billion A Year, YouTube, November, 18, 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaOS6bGta7M

3. The Buyer’s Garage, John Deere EXPOSED in NEW Clean Air Act Scandal, You Tube, October, 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynjNUgaZpyM

THE VIEWS OF SUBMITTED EDITORIALS MAY NOT BE THE EXPRESS VIEWS OF THE ALABAMA GAZETTE.