Talking Shop: Kamikaze Squad

“Greed is a bottomless pit

which exhausts a person.

It is an endless effort to

satisfy the need without

ever gaining satisfaction.”

― Erich Fromm

This column is not about rocket-powered Japanese MXY-7 Ohka aircraft hurtling into allied targets during World War II with payloads of bombs, flown by kamikaze pilots strapped for one final time in the cockpit. This is about man’s devilry and scheming, the absolute lack of moral turpitude. This is a tale of complete disregard for tomorrow, one about putting greed and other insatiable needs first. The end-game – make today as gilt-lined and magnificent as can be.

This is about crafty and planned obsolescence by today’s top global companies. Many of these organizations are content in making a killing today, deliberately selling ‘temporary’ products to customers. The management at these firms – humans still somewhere deep within – are aware, but they don’t care that they are destroying themselves too in the longer run. By killing Planet Earth, one deadly product at a time, they are adding straw after straw onto the proverbial camel’s back. Something’s got to give, and something will. All the warning signals are there.

There is a desperate need for all-round awareness about such matters amongst the people, even though it will inevitably lead to revulsion towards many of today’s leaders. Ideally, rulers should lead by example, set the tone and tenor for the sweet melody that life ought to be. But many in the ruler’s chair are complicit – they know their companies are killing and over-cooking the golden goose, but continue to ignore the pealing danger bells.

Devious Light Bulbs

Many argue that this is nothing new and has existed for long. They are right. Without delving into ancient history, let’s look at examples of wilful corporate malevolence. We begin with the humble light bulb, in 1929. This was the year that the ‘Phoebus Cartel’, a motley crew of global bulb manufacturers, cracked the whip. Cartel partners craftily reduced the life of incandescent bulbs from around 2,500 hours to 1,000 hours. To increase sales and profits, ‘planned obsolescence’ was born. It has since evolved into something far more sinister. In 1929, the cartel realized that tech-advancements were leading to longer-lasting bulbs, reducing new sales and profits. They engineered shorter-life bulbs, fining those firms that reused to resort to such deviousness.

What got me thinking about this? My new microwave oven did. The fire was kindled when a technician came over to teach me how to operate the gizmo. Hearing me brag that I knew it all, he told me something I didn’t – why my old microwave had died within six years of purchase, as had my 55-inch TV and my 565-litre refrigerator. His explanation was startling enough to be deafening, though he barely whispered it out – “It is designed to go bad, Sir.”

Apparently, those wise-looking guys we see in TV ads – sporting silver in their hair, toting white lab coats and strutting across factory floors – are younger and more cunning than they look. When they tinker with all things digital, semiconductors and circuit boards in their dust-free design labs, they are not building gadgets that you can show off to your grandchildren. They are conjuring up appliances that will not survive more than a few years. Long story short, they talk to electronics goods and tell the machines to go bust. It is all about sales. More sales. And then some more.

Big Bucks Down the Drain

The next time you spend thousands of your savings rupees, which you sweated to eke out of your hard-earned post-tax salaries, remember you are buying a lemon – a product engineered to go bad in what would have been its quarter-life just 20 years back. Because only when it conks out will you buy a new one. Figures are not available for India, but a study conducted by Sustainability for All shows that in Europe alone, ‘planned obsolescence’ costs around 50,000 euros (Rs 48 lakh) per person in a lifetime. Juxtapose that in India at today’s population levels and you get to a figure of Rs 71 crore crore – 71 followed by 14 zeros. Forget the zeros and the prefix; Rs 48 lakh itself is more than most Indians earn in a lifetime.

What all is being given a short shrift? What began with the Phoebus Cartel and light bulbs has evolved. For instance, Smartphones and other electronic devices are being stuffed with parts and components that are difficult or impossible to repair, or replace. No slouch itself, the fashion industry is deliberately producing low-quality clothing designed to wear out quickly. New models of cars are being launched every year with minor facelifts and cosmetic upgrades, encouraging aspirational consumers to upgrade. Even ink cartridges in your printers aren’t being spared; they are designed to be non-reusable, forcing consumers to repeatedly purchase new ones.

Do remember that most of the items we are talking about are made of embedded heavy metals and non-bio-degradable components, predominant among them being plastic or various grades and categories. All this stuff has to go somewhere. It does. The few responsible companies and people resort to recycling or dump the waste in landfills. The more creative majority don’t really care two hoots – waste finds itself in our lakes and mountainsides, or gets thrown into our oceans. The really crafty lot just dump them in Third World nations.

Killing the Environment

The environmental cost involved in irresponsible waste disposal is staggering. In the greedy gig to create products that fail prematurely, e-waste is a fast-growing waste stream. Product failures lead to new purchases – the targeted result of capitalism – and the constantly rising demand is leading to over-extraction of natural resources, depleting the same for future generations. We should all celebrate the sordid fact that manufacturing and disposing of products are sending air, water and ground pollution soaring to deadly levels. Not only is the demand upsurge leaving little in terms of resources for future generations to mine, today’s wastes are seeping into flora, fauna and human beings. Man is getting really good at consuming nanoplastics – we are full of it.

E-waste is the fastest-growing deadly by-product of global consumerism, with 6.2 crore tonnes generated in 2022 itself, doubling since 2010. Less than a quarter of e-waste generated each year is collected and recycled conscientiously, with a majority of this ending being informally recycled. This involves hazardous and carcinogenic substances, especially in developing nations. The lack of proper e-waste management poses a growing health hazard, with toxic and hazardous substances such as mercury, lead and cadmium contaminating soil, water and air. And human bodies.

We are facing an environmental catastrophe, one that is insidiously poisoning our very planet and humanity itself. Soil samples around the world are showing dangerous pH levels of between 5.5 and 7.0, exceeding safe agricultural standards due to heavy metal contamination. The United Nations estimates that bioaccumulation of toxins in crops, has already entered the human food chain and is causing neurological disorders and cancers. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency predicts that unchecked proliferation of e-waste is not just an environmental crisis, but a direct threat to human survival, demanding immediate and stringent global action.

Soliloquy: Do we care to take note and make amends? No. Companies are more concerned about making bigger profits by selling more and more. Consumers aren’t bothered either, busy as they are in choosing their next microwave oven or washing machine. No one seems to care.

The writer is a veteran journalist and communications specialist. He can be reached on narayanrajeev2006@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal