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39
Is it ethical for companies to manufacture products that easily break, if they have the ability to make them less breakable? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) by ReconciliationTime22128@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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Hopefully I’ve worded the question right.

I was once told (I could never verify if it was true) that a crocs company once almost went bankrupt after they made their crocs practically indestructible. Whilst the story was most likely bullshit, it makes me wonder: if a company can make a product that is practically indestructible, is it ethical for them not to make them indestructible, so people will buy more from them?

The way I look at it is, on one hand, I feel like they should make products to the highest quality if they can so that the consumer has to spend less money and that less is wasted, but at the same time if it leads to the company going bankrupt, what of the workers and their families? So I can’t decide, what do you think?

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[–] Switorik@sh.itjust.works 18 points 3 hours ago (3 children)

Think about all the waste that cheap products create. I can buy a cheap pair of work boots twice a year or a good pair every 2/3 years. I believe it's unethical for preying on the poor while also creating more waste.

[–] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 14 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (2 children)

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. ... A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. ... But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socio-economic unfairness.

Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 1 points 12 minutes ago

I just paid about $200 (including taxes and shipping) for a pair of leather work sneakers that should last about a year, if I take good care of them, but sketchers usually break down inside about 3 months of wear. I didn't want to spend it, because gestures at everything, but I had to make the hard decision.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 2 points 2 hours ago

Haha the first thing I thought of. The finest literary example of representing economics with boots!

[–] ReconciliationTime22128@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 hours ago

True that waste is also a factor in this.