Coproeconomics or it used to be better.

[Crimean]

All of you have noticed such a remarkable phenomenon as the planned obsolescence of things. In Russia, this is often called "coproeconomics" or simply "economics of shit." It began sometime in the early 2000s.
Big business solves three problems at once with the help of coproeconomics:
1) reduces the cost per unit of production.
2) makes the population more often buy goods.
3) feeds a horde of parasites, middlemen and "extra" people.
In addition, this approach quickly worsens the state of the biosphere. In my opinion, the positive side of coproeconomics is only in accelerating the introduction of new technologies (whether it is necessary or not).

The main examples of the coproeconomic approach, in my opinion:
- Food industry. It has long been turned into one of the sub-sectors of the chemical industry. Natural products exist, but it is more difficult to find them and they are more expensive.
- Auto industry and household appliances. Most consumer equipment breaks now immediately after the expiration of the warranty period. Repairability is zero, you need to replace the whole units instead of repair, the huge cost and low availability of spare parts.
- Software. The constant invention of "new" bloated frameworks increases the system requirements of programs, with a minimum of useful features added. Because of this, you always have to buy new devices, while the old ones still work fine. In addition, ALMOST each program now collects data about you, which is then sold to interested parties. "Unscrupulous" people earn on you, hiding behind the "concern for convenience."

Please provide more specific examples from your countries, if you notice this.

[Crimean]

A few examples:
- Finnish cervelat. In the 80-90s, it was one of the most delicious sausages, buy it was considered a great success in Russia. Recently my friends from St. Petersburg, who are often go to Finland, brought it to me. The taste is completely ... ordinary. No different from what you can buy in Russia.
- Imported non-craft beer (Turkish Efes, native Heineken and Budweiser Budvar). All the same, it was amazing in the 90s-first half of 00's, and now the same urine as everywhere else.

[Crimean]

More examples.
- Modern light bulbs serve for six months or a year, and Soviet light bulbs (there are still many in Russia) in many places still serve. I still have two 40-watt lamps, bought in 1984 and 1988, in the Sevastopol apartment.
- Indesit washing machine, bought 3 years ago. The inability to replace a worn-out (only 3 years old !!) bearing by yourself, as it makes up one piece with the drum and is sealed. It is necessary to buy a new washing machine, although on my own I would replace the bearing for a couple of evenings, the issue price (bearing and oil seal) is ~ 10 euros.
- Macbooks (I do not have them and never will). Each generation is more and more difficult to disassemble by yourself. All components are soldered on the motherboard, in the event of a breakdown of any of them, the entire motherboard must be replaced entirely in an "authorized service center" for half the cost of the laptop.

[Crimean]

Bump!
What are examples of deterioration in the quality of goods in your country?
I thought it's an interesting topic (naive one).

[pulstar]

Bump!
What are examples of deterioration in the quality of goods in your country?
I thought it's an interesting topic (naive one).

I don't know where to start really, because literally everything went down. When it comes to food we no longer have even quality control so only parameter you can partially have confidence in is food price. Almost entirety of local textile and clothing industry was removed in order to get imported, cheap quality products of higher prices. Local mechanical industry had the same faith. Its the same with the services. Its more notable with public services. Communal services had complete collapse, from some planing (sewage system, garbage removal, city plumbing, landslide control and urbanization zones expansion) to complete entropy (regulation exist only on paper). Rehabilitation system completely lost its meaning as prisoners who come out of prison repeat the crimes, and really no one wants to hire them. Judiciary system model hasn't been changed since 19th century, police can't do their work because of high corruption in government and too big bureaucracy. When it comes to finishing some basic paperwork for you as a common citizen its impossible to do it fast. By my estimate around 80% of those capable workers moved out of the country which left huge gap for a small country like Serbia. So yeah, plenty of decreased products and services.

[Crimean]

I don't know where to start really, because literally everything went down. When it comes to food we no longer have even quality control so only parameter you can partially have confidence in is food price. Almost entirety of local textile and clothing industry was removed in order to get imported, cheap quality products of higher prices. Local mechanical industry had the same faith. Its the same with the services. Its more notable with public services. Communal services had complete collapse, from some planing (sewage system, garbage removal, city plumbing, landslide control and urbanization zones expansion) to complete entropy (regulation exist only on paper). Rehabilitation system completely lost its meaning as prisoners who come out of prison repeat the crimes, and really no one wants to hire them. Judiciary system model hasn't been changed since 19th century, police can't do their work because of high corruption in government and too big bureaucracy. When it comes to finishing some basic paperwork for you as a common citizen its impossible to do it fast. By my estimate around 80% of those capable workers moved out of the country which left huge gap for a small country like Serbia. So yeah, plenty of decreased products and services.

Thanks for the detailed answer. It feels like most people around do not notice this problem, considering it as "the norm."

[KirillMazur]

Bump!

Everything has already been invented before us. In 2001, they received the Nobel Prize in economics for justifying that in a free market, the quality of goods and services will inevitably decline at the same price.

And there is also a universal theory of quality reduction, time-tested - if the buyer on the market is not able to distinguish a quality product from a poor-quality one, then the cheaper one survives, replacing the better one with itself, or squeezing it into an elite segment.

This is how free competition works.

[KirillMazur]

A market captured by TNCs is not a free market. The fact of a decrease in quality is obvious, and the explanation is somewhat doubtful. If you managed to capture the market and fill it with some rubbish, you can simply not let quality goods into it. Or let it be "only for the rich", as if convincing that an ordinary person can’t afford it. Then the consumer will not see an alternative at all. At least at the moment, this is approximately how it works - where it was possible to crush the competition.

[KirillMazur]

To increase the recording density, HDD manufacturers switched to SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) technology.
Unfortunately, the new technology prevents the use of disks as part of RAID. And even worse, manufacturers do not mention the use of SMR in the specification on hdd.
Be careful when choosing hard drives.

Western Digital Fesses Up: Some Red HDDs Use Slow SMR Tech Without Disclosure
The company failed to disclose the use of SMR in advertising or spec sheets.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/wd...-slow-smr-tech

I don’t know how the forum relates to HDD conservatism, but when reading this news, various theories of SSD conspiracy persistently get into my head. Like, in general, this: manufacturers are desperate to promote SSDs for everyone, because they lose in reliability to HDD and fail SUDDENLY, especially if you push a swap there (and if you do not push it, then why all these speed advantages?). You don’t want the good way, buyers, it will be the bad one for you: now we will reduce the reliability of the HDD (without disclosure), too.

[KirillMazur]

Nike's Mayfly sneakers are designed for only 100 kilometers. That is, provided that the buyer walks at a speed of 5 km / h, he can throw these wonderful shoes away after twenty hours of wearing. If you imagine that a person will walk in sneakers for half an hour a day, and on weekends either sit on the couch barefoot or find alternative shoes, then sneakers for £ 90 can be enjoyed for two whole months!
https://www.thedropdate.com/news/nik...-brief-history