Russell Coker <russell@coker.com.au> wrote:
The problem here is that unrestricted capitalism is clearly and directly against the best interests of citizens. Companies should be compelled to make products work well for a reasonable period of time. There are statutory warranties for hardware, so if you buy a Samsung phone and it stops working within a year they have to replace it.
A strong regulatory incentive to sell durable products benefits the consumer and the natural environment (the latter by reducing waste and conserving resources). Obviously, durability runs counter to the upgrade path that sells more products. Of course, consumers bear part of the responsibility - if they demonstrated a strong, collective preference for more reliable and long-lasting hardware and software, this would influence the demand side of the market. It's also notable that consumers generally don't have access to comparative reliability data, so it's hard to make the right choices.