Throw Away Society...

 What ever happen to sayings or terms like;

1. family heirlooms OR hand-me-downs OR passed down through the generations
2. life time guarantee OR  last a life time
3. built like a tank OR bullet proof...?

Nothing lasts,,, it seems absolutely everything is designed to be disposable; from Fast Moving Consumer Goods to Marriage... Yep, even marriage is now on the endangered list, right up there with Polar Bears & Bengal Tigers (the list is longer that you'd imagine, thousands and growing daily..!)

It seems that somewhere along the way, the term Planned Obsolescence and Globalisation collided, pardon the segue... The automobile industry in the late 60's & early 70's and by the 80's it was across most industries, including the fast food industry..

Whats interesting is Volkswagen never subscribed to this madness, which is why you still see heaps of VW Beetles and Kombi's bashin' around...

Pre 60's automobile brands where built on their reputation and on how they stood the test of time... Then the automobile industry realized that their days where numbered if they kept building such long lasting products that would actually out last them, then they'd be soon out of business... Enter the cheap Japanese Datsun/Nissan's and the rest is history... It seems that vehicles are lucky to last 10 years these day..

About 15 years ago I bought a 1965 XP Falcon, although she was always thirsty, it was a magical mobile that used to drive me as much I drove it and was properly built proof and fine example of Ford's solid and dominating brand.. Today Fords and most other mainstream vehicles seem almost plastic and throw away and its very difficult at a glance to tell the difference between the luxury vehicles and the cheapest, they all look the same don't last..

The throw-away society is a human society strongly influenced by consumerism. The term describes a critical view of over-consumption and excessive production of short-lived or disposable items.

So,,, what happens when we run out of space for all the plastic rubbish that protects everything we buy and then ultimately throw away and discarded cars pile up and all the available landfills are full..?

When I lived in Japan 12 year back,,, every month was like Christmas..! Out of the blue, near new TV's, Laptops, DVD Players, Digital everything(s),,, Lounges, Beds, seemingly contents of entire units would be perfected placed on the street side for council collection.. It was great at first,,, as I must of filled my place (palace of stuff) 3 or 4 time over in 6 months... But then once i started throwing out perfectly good "stuff" because I didn't have room for it, the penny dropped...

The consumer is in control and business is only supplying the demand...

Japan (the early adopters and driving force of technology) had gone complete consumer crazy, where the latest gadget was already obsolete before it had hit the market place..

Insanity and a grand and now global scale... Is there a word for collective insanity..?

Ego, status, greed, convenience, opportunism, selfishness and disconnection are all combining to suffocate the environment with toxic chemicals that leave a gigantic mess to our children to clean up...

Our Landlord, who's never asked for a cent, is drafting the eviction notice...!

They don't build 'em like they used to... Now there's an opportunity...