planned obsolescence

Noun

Meaning

planned obsolescence (uncountable)

A policy of deliberately planning or designing a product with a limited useful life, so it will become obsolete or nonfunctional after a certain period.

Source: en.wiktionary.org

Synonyms

programmed obsolescence built-in obsolescence

Examples

But planned obsolescence is possible only if the rate of technological change is contained. David Harvey

Planned obsolescence is not really a new concept. God used it with people. Robert Orben

Publishers, naturally, loathe used books and have developed strategies to depress the secondhand market. They bring out new, even more expensive editions of popular textbooks every three to four years, in a classic cycle of planned obsolescence. James Surowiecki

Perhaps it is this specter that most haunts working men and women: the planned obsolescence of people that is of a piece with the planned obsolescence of the things they make. Or sell. Studs Terkel

The application of planned obsolescence to thought itself has the same merit as its application to consumer goods; the new is not only shoddier than the old, it fuels an obsolete social system that staves off its replacement by manufacturing the illusion that it is perpetually new. Russell Jacoby

Our whole economy is based on planned obsolescence. Brooks Stevens

Close letter words and terms

planned economist planned economy planned language planned parenthood planned route planned series of actions