There’s a growing unease, a gnawing feeling that something fundamental has shifted in the corporate world. We’ve moved from an era where craftsmanship and durability were revered, where products were built to serve for years, to a climate where the relentless pursuit of profit seems to overshadow everything else. This isn’t just a byproduct of innovation; it feels like a deliberate design, a system optimised not for human benefit, but for financial gain. It’s when greed takes over.
Let’s explore how this phenomenon manifests across different industries:
1. The Illusion of Innovation: Electronics and Planned Obsolescence
Remember the robust Nokia phones or washing machines that lasted decades? That era feels like a distant memory. Today, #Repairability has become a relic of the past. Companies design products with proprietary screws, glued-in components, and highly integrated parts, making self-repair virtually impossible. Take batteries in modern smartphones: if you want to replace one, you’re either forced into an expensive official service or told it’s “not worth it” — pushing you towards a new device.
Consider the modern TV. They’re packed with “features” but often engineered with a shockingly short lifespan. After just 3–4 years, a black spot, a green line, or a complete panel failure appears, forcing you to replace an otherwise functional device. The high cost of repair often makes buying new the “sensible” option, even if it adds to the growing mountain of #eWaste.
And the irony? These same companies boast about reducing their carbon footprint by omitting chargers and headphones from new phone boxes. They cut your cost of accessories, but never their own manufacturing costs, ensuring they retain maximum profit margins while pushing the environmental burden onto consumers. It’s a blatant form of Greenwashing, where appearances matter more than genuine sustainability.
2. The Stagnation of “Innovation”: Phones and Forced Lifestyle Changes
I genuinely struggle to recall the last true innovation in smartphones. My old Google Pixel 2 XL took amazing photos, on par with many current flagships. Yet, these companies relentlessly push “new” models with incremental updates. What’s worse, they often employ #SoftwareObsolescence: remember how some older phone models mysteriously slowed down, or their cameras seemed to degrade after a major software update? It’s as if they actively diminish the quality of your existing device to make the new model more appealing, forcing you into an upgrade cycle you might not need or want. This isn’t about progress; it’s about forcing a lifestyle of constant consumption.
3. The Poisoned Palate: Food Industry’s Race to the Bottom
The food industry presents some of the most alarming examples of profit overriding human well-being. Companies are selling low-quality food, prioritising shelf-life and cheap production over nutritional value. We see:
- Excessive Sugar & Additives: Foods, especially those marketed to children, are loaded with sugars and artificial additives to create addiction and boost consumption, without regard for the long-term health crisis this creates.
- Cheap, Unhealthy Fats: The widespread use of palm oil, despite its environmental and health concerns, in chips, biscuits, and countless processed foods is a prime example of choosing the cheapest ingredient for profit, not for people.
- Carcinogenic & Preservatives: The long list of questionable preservatives, artificial colours, and flavour enhancers, some with suspected carcinogenic properties, are employed to cut costs and extend shelf life, with public health as an afterthought.
4. Beyond Electronics and Food: A Systemic Issue
This profit-first mentality isn’t confined to a few sectors; it’s a systemic issue permeating nearly every industry:
- Fast Fashion: Clothing is designed to fall apart after a few washes, trends change weekly, and cheap synthetic materials dominate. The entire model encourages continuous buying and discarding, creating mountains of textile waste and exploiting labor in the process. It’s about churning out volume for profit, not creating lasting garments.
- Printers and Ink Cartridges: The “razor and blades” model is infamous here. Printers are sold cheaply, but the replacement ink cartridges cost a fortune, often more than the printer itself. Some printers even refuse to work if one colour cartridge is empty, even if you’re only printing in black and white. It’s a deliberate lock-in designed for perpetual profit from consumables.
- Home Appliances: Modern washing machines, dishwashers, and refrigerators often come with complex, unrepairable circuit boards or plastic parts designed to fail, rather than the robust mechanical components of yesteryear. The “repair or replace” decision invariably leads to replacement.
- Children’s Toys: Once built for rough play and designed to be passed down, many modern toys are flimsy, plastic-heavy, and designed for fleeting engagement, breaking quickly and ending up in landfills. The focus is on novelty and quick sales, not durable play.
- Subscription Models (Software/Hardware): Increasingly, companies are moving towards subscription-based models for everything from software to even car features. This ensures a constant revenue stream for them, effectively turning ownership into a perpetual rental, regardless of how much you initially paid for the “hardware.”
- Automotive Minor Components: Beyond the bike example, think of minor plastic components in cars today. Simple parts that used to be robust metal are now brittle plastic, designed to snap or wear out, forcing expensive replacements for trivial failures.
There was a time when engineers, designers, and artisans built things with a profound sense of craftsmanship and an aspiration for perfection — a dedication born from passion. While innovation is crucial, it feels like the scales have tipped precariously. The current trajectory suggests a system where the relentless pursuit of Greed and Profit is prioritised over Humanity, product longevity, consumer welfare, and genuine progress.
It’s time we question this paradigm and demand a return to products built to last, to industries that genuinely care for people and the planet, and to innovation that truly serves humanity, not just the bottom line.
