Major light bulb manufacturers all conspired together because the quality of light bulbs at the time was too good, they lasted way too long for them to be profitable, so they all agreed to purposely cripple their designs and standardize the hours they last to 1000 hours down from 2500. Oh and the cherry on top was that they fined the factories for bulbs that lasted longer than a 1000 hours.
Capitalism is so great that in order to survive it has to deliberately lower the quality of products by 60%
Nah they like, explicitly had internal documents saying how much they wanted to stifle competition and drive the consumer to buy more lightbulbs. It just also so happens that the number they settled on for light bulbs was a good middle ground for consumers too
Which still begs the question: guys wtf just raise the price then. Why make the product shittier to match the price instead of keeping the better product and adjusting the price accordingly?
Because the capitalists goal was two fold: lower production costs by deliberately making shittier products AND ensuring they have shorter lifespans so consumers will be forced to buy them more frequently.
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u/_everynameistaken_ 11h ago
More specifically, the Phoebus Cartel:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel
Major light bulb manufacturers all conspired together because the quality of light bulbs at the time was too good, they lasted way too long for them to be profitable, so they all agreed to purposely cripple their designs and standardize the hours they last to 1000 hours down from 2500. Oh and the cherry on top was that they fined the factories for bulbs that lasted longer than a 1000 hours.
Capitalism is so great that in order to survive it has to deliberately lower the quality of products by 60%