Egineering Ethics Planned obsolescence is the practice of pr

Egineering Ethics:

Planned obsolescence is the practice of producing goods designed to be replaced, either because the goods \"go out of style\", or because the goods are designed to fail, are designed to self-destruct, there is a lack of replacement parts, are made of less durable materials than are readily available, etc. Give an example of planned obsolescence in engineering. Then, argue that planned obsolescence is either morally acceptable or morally unacceptable. (You can use one the normative or metaethical theories we\'ve discussed to support your position. You can also appeal to the arguments of Plato, Micheal Davis, George Harris, Harry Frankfurt, or the like to support your position.)

Solution

planned obsolence is a process of launching a product in the market with a limited life with an ability to increase demand for its future version. The process have two different aspects in effecting the environment.

1) Planned obsolescene by innovation firms

lets take an example of evolution of soft storage devices. the floppy disc to storage SD card. we can observe that the during all these years the storage capacity is increased and the material used is decreased. such types of evolution in the engineering are helpful to the humans as well as environment.

2: By production firms:

there are many producers to make more money introduce products which are non -repaire able or the parts with very low life. in such firms the updated product is launched with a periodic intervel so that the competition in the market goes down.

ethically it is wrong because the consumer is being cheated. Taiwo K. Aladeojebi in his Journal have discussed where the customers are being fooled by the producers. due to non-repaire abilty of the product the wastage in the country increases due to which the environment is being spoiled.