{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title":"Time for Things Labor, Leisure, and the Rise of Mass Consumption","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9780674250529","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","uuid":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title":"Time for Things Labor, Leisure, and the Rise of Mass Consumption","normalized_title":"timeforthingslaborleisureandtheriseofmassconsumption","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9780674250529","isbns":["9780674250529","9780674250536","9780674979512"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":355,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Time%20for%20Things%20Labor%2C%20Leisure%2C%20and%20the%20Rise%20of%20Mass%20Consumption","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/search"},"page":{"printed_page":252,"pdf_page":260,"physical_index":260,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"469b2476f22b04f8a9ad5b0e308bf54c084614266a7efd87d48be737d033695b"},"chapter":"FOR","content":"The emergence of an environmental interpretation of the problem with planned obsolescence was accompanied by a shift in the center of gravity of perceived responsibility for the practice, away from business and toward consumers. While corporations were still targets for criticism, the environmental call to action was largely addressed to individual consumers. Los Angeles Times columnist Richard Bufman, writing in 1971, demanded that consumers “think before we consume. Think of the consequences and demand an end to planned obsolescence. Demand better engineered things, better crafted things and husband them carefully until they really wear out, not just until the style changes.”95 In summing up the new current of opinion, according to which waste is a byproduct of mercurial consumer taste, Mike Geist, of PR and marketing firm, Geist and Geist, commented that “planned obsolescence is just plain waste, and waste is no longer in fashion.”96\n\nThe articulation of the issue of planned obsolescence to concerns about the environment could be interpreted as just reflecting growing consciousness about environmental issues. However, it is perhaps significant that the shift in criticism of planned obsolescence from the economic unfairness of the practice, to its environmental consequences, took place just as the Fordist framework of industrial capitalism was beginning to fall apart. Against the backdrop of the mid-century Fordism, planned obsolescence was seen as problematic primarily because it represented a reneging of obligations of business to consumers, in a corporatist context in which labor and business were locked in a loose compact to share the proceeds of economic growth. But, as historians have shown, the politics of consumption in America changed over the course of the twentieth century. Up until the mid-century period, consumption was thought about in terms that were closely tied to moral and political economy, involving the issue of the just and fair distribution of “purchasing power.” As the century wore on, however, consumption increasingly became framed in terms of individual rights and preferences (L. Cohen 2003; Jacobs 2005). If this account is correct, the weakening grounds of the older moral economy opened up space for environmental concerns about obsolescence and consumer waste to move to the forefront, formulating a critique of planned obsolescence from a quite diferent angle. (I will return to this topic in the discussion section, at the end of this chapter.)\n\n252\n\nTime for Things","previous_page":251,"next_page":253}