How happiness becomes obsolete

Dynamic obsolescence is all around us.

In fast fashion, it's implemented through designs that only last one season. Every season the clothes are swapped out. Fashion houses like Louis Vuitton, Coach, Michael Kors, and Burberry have even been caught burning old stock to prevent it being resold.

There's a constant push towards more and marginally better. When you run out of innovation you do throwbacks.

We bring back shapes and patterns from the 70's, 80's, and 90's. Film franchises get resurrected with new casts and directors. The iPhone 11 looks like the iPhone 4. We go backwards to go forwards.

Everything is recycled to extract a little bit more money, and consumers don't complain, we love it! Keeping up with the Joneses allows us to elevate our status and be part of the in-group.

The scam you don't notice

So now printer cartridges have chips inside. Some chips prevent you from using any ink that wasn’t supplied by the manufacturer. They also tell the printer when to stop using ink - not when the ink runs out - just when it reaches a pre-determined amount which would prompt you to go buy more.