ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about the story of 'Planned Obsolescence', the idea that certain products are designed and produced to have an artificially limited lifetime. With an acceleration of consumer culture spread to the far reaches of the world through globalization, plus everyday consumption that demands resources arrive from all four corners of the world in order to satisfy our cravings for cheap food, furniture, and fridges. There is a measurable downside of the omnipresent availability of commodities, services, and consumer goods within more developed countries, and their increasing availability in newly industrialized countries (NIC) such as Brazil, India, and South Africa. The height of Fordist production was in the first decades of the twentieth century. It is no accident that this is exactly the period for one of the most valuable business lessons in the ethics of production and consumption.
