Ending the depression through planned obsolescenceLondon, Bernard
General
Ending the depression through planned obsolescence
London, Bernard
Economic policy; United States -- Economic conditions -- 1918-1945
In olden times, only a few chosen ones, such as kings and priests and
nobles, could read and write. The rest of the people were kept in
ignorance and poverty. Today, with our standardized and simplified
grammar and our mass education, the benefits of literacy are available
to everybody, to rich and poor alike.
Such a condition should exist also with respect to the enjoyment of
wealth. A minimum standard should be created for everyone, and rich
and poor, old and young should participate in its benefits, and profit
from its use and management.
Our economic society has advanced little from Medieval times in the
distribution of our wealth. We still continue on the basis of our old
theories and notions that only the chosen ones should enjoy it.
There is as much wealth in existence as there is time, but people do
not visualize it. Wealth, like food, must be digested for human beings
to be able to live, function and create—in other words, to produce more
wealth. If we want to acquire new wealth, the supply lines must be
drained so that fresh commodities can come in. If there are stale goods
left in the lines, the fresh supply must force them out.
The cause of our present stagnation is that the supply line or arteries
furnishing the needs of the country are clogged with obsolete, outworn
and outmoded machinery, buildings and commodities of all kinds. These
are obstructing the avenues of commerce and industry and are preventing
new products from coming through. There is little demand for new goods
when people make their old and worn-out things do, by keeping them
longer than they should.
We need to apply better managerial foresight to public affairs. I
contend that any business or corporation, public or private, which
operates and expects to get an income of several billions of dollars
a year from its operations, deserves much attention, and requires
thoughtful planning, in order to perfect the machinery of its
organization. The aim should be to make it function smoothly in order
to satisfy the self-supporting multitudes, by providing them with
regular employment at a living wage which will assure the American
standard of living.
Such a socially responsible system, which is anxious for the well-being
of all of its citizens, is on a vastly sounder and more permanent basis
than one which allows business merely to take out profits without
improving the organization with new methods and without renewing the
equipment.
I maintain that with wealth should go responsibility. Too many nowadays
regard wealth as a license to freedom and immunity from obligation to
the people. Such irresponsible possessors of wealth are shirkers, who
tend to make all of us poorer.
Summarizing the benefits which would accrue to this nation and to the
world at large if my plan were adopted and put into effect, it would:
1. Bring order out of the chaos now disrupting the whole economic and
social organization.
2. Organize and regularize opportunities for employment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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