Technology is not going my way this month. My son dropped the camera I bought him as an off-to-university-in-Australia gift and cracked the LCD display; he was told by the service centre in Sydney it would be cheaper to buy a new one. Then my electric shaver refused to recharge and, when I opened it, I found the manufacturer had soldered in the batteries, making them impossible to replace. On Tuesday, my fridge stopped working; the repairman shook his head and said purchasing the latest model would be more cost effective.
This makes me angry. It is not so much that my budget has been torn to shreds - it is that each item was easily repairable. Consumer electronics are made to be used for only so long and then we are expected to throw them out and buy replacements. This way, the companies can keep shareholders happy.
But this is only the tip of the problem in our consumer-driven, society. Firms churn out new products yearly, or even quarterly. We are bombarded by advertising to buy, buy, buy. Everywhere we look, there is a new this or that. The pressure to get the latest model, irrespective of whether we need it or not, is enormous.
Try to get a computer with a Windows 98 operating system serviced. It may still do everything you want it to, but you will be told that it is no longer supported, so you will have to upgrade to Vista. Ask in a shop for cloth nappies for your baby and the staff will look at you as if you have gone mad; what's wrong with disposable ones, they will ask. We have to have not one pair of sports shoes, but a pair for each activity. And so the list goes on.
This rampant consumerism goes against what common sense and science are telling us. The planet is warming up because of the greenhouse gases that are, in large part, being emitted by manufacturing plants. We are supposed to be environmentally conscious and to think of sustainable development. Producing deliberately obsolete goods, that are expensive to repair or are regularly superseded, goes against the grain.
There is a bright spot: the global financial crisis. Economic growth rates have been slashed. Company profits are down as consumers stop buying. There is no better time to question the system and review our lives.