Please hold, our country seems to be experiencing some technical difficulties
This morning when I was checking my email one of the stories on the main page caught my attention, so I decided to check it out. It was Yahoo!'s article about new computer life span (click the link to read it yourself). They are now projecting that a VAST majority of the new laptop and notebook computers that we buy will last on average a year or so - at the most, three years. Is it just me or is there something wrong with this picture? This is EXACTLY the kind of thing that is causing a huge problem with our country. We pour hundreds and thousands of dollars into electronics and other entertainment items, and it seems (yes, I'm going there) that the manufacturer's are intentionally making them more likely to break down after a short amount of time so that we have to go out a buy a new one in a year. Think with me about the cycle, we throw out an old computer (and honestly, do you REALLY know where that's going?), spend anywhere from $300 - $1500 on a new one, it breaks "somehow" in a year and a half, we throw it away, spend $300 - $1500 on a new one, it breaks in a year and a half... the cycle goes over and over again. Now I'm aware that everything in life is in a constant state of deterioration, but I KNOW that computers can be made to NOT break in a matter of months or a year. This all goes along with what I said about being greener and not creating more waste for our planet. If we want to be able to live a healthy lifestyle, we need to keep the world we live in healthy as well, and the massive amounts of waste that we are producing needlessly is rapidly accelerating the disrepair of this world. Wake up, America, and stop letting yourself be taken advantage of.
2 comments:
My dear Ashley, I hope that you understand the sheer marketing genius of creating items that will need to be replaced within the next few years. It keeps money pumping into the businesses that create them and thus our economy....... which is very important. Now I am not saying that I entirely disagree with your point of view, but at the same time, it is genius!
I challenge that opinion - years ago before this sort of "disposable" lifestyle, our economy was in a much better state than it is now. Why is that? And "good business" aside - consider the amount of waste that we're producing in this practice. Firstly, where do our things go when they are discarded? What about the amount of resources it takes to make them? The effects that these factories and such have on our world? And it's a complete rip off. I can promise you that if I didn't have to spend money replacing these items, that it would still get spent - either on other items of necessity or other forms of entertainment that are not a complete waste.
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