Many of the products we buy nowadays break or wear out very quickly. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this for manufacturers and the public?

Consumerism has an iron-hard grip on our world nowadays.

This

is shown clearly by the myriad of commodities currently on display on the shelves of our mega-stores as well as by the massive amounts of money spent every year in all

first

-world countries around the globe. The short lifespan of goods not only has disadvantages but

also

advantages both for producers and the public, which will be explored in

this

essay. For the creators of all kinds of ,products it is of course desirable to sell as many items as possible to enlarge their revenue and profit.

Hence

, it seems advantageous for producers to make their merchandise less durable, which means they will have to be purchased more often. A reduction of conditions,

for example

,

also

means the cost for production can be lowered significantly, which allows the manufacturers to increase their income.

For example

, a clothing store in Germany actually advertises with a slogan stating, that their products are so cheap, 'you can buy a new shirt every day of the week'. Controversially,

this

attitude might reduce the trust and

hence

the return of possible buyers. For the public, these low-cost schemes might sound appealing at

first

, as they apparently give the opportunity to get more,

however

, little money spent often sums up rather fast. Merchandise of poor aspect

also

often leave buyers unsatisfied, which might cause the overall willingness to spend money on certain p. So whereas the cheaper price of the commodities might be perceived as a benefit, in the long run, a superior purchase often costs less and

also

has a smaller impact on the world at large To conclude, craftsmanship seems to be on the decline, even though with our modern technologies it would be easy to create long-lasting, elegant and functional items which could be enjoyed for many years rather than mere weeks. The advantages of short-lived goods are mostly for manufacturers and cannot outweigh the disadvantages for the consumers and the world at large. It would be a wonderful effort to create more sustainable and eventually zero-waste products to relieve the increasing demand for landfills and incinerators and to be able to enjoy quality over quantity again.