Comradeship // Freechat

Today the topic of enshitification and planned obsolescence were brought up as I was teaching my family these concepts. My step dad and I were on the same page about how this process started before the 21st century and kicked up pretty badly in the 90s.

Before I could say why, as I was really trying to see if I even should based on vibes, but my step dad stated that the reason why this happened is because manufacturing is done in China. My mom replied that was because labour was cheaper, step dad said it was because things were cheap in general. My mom said that people here don’t want to pay for better products and step dad added that people here just don’t want to pay in general. The conversation ended when he stated that this problem was the fault of unions.

I didn’t know what to say, how is planned obsolescence the fault of unions? Why is the fact that products have gotten worse over the years on purpose a problem that unions caused? I have been aware that my step dad is very anti union but it was only brought up once ages before. This is probably the second time it’s ever been said in all the years I’ve known him. My bio dad is a union man and I’ve seen how it has protected him and guaranteed him work. They also pay him well too so it’s interesting to see the dichotomy between my dads.

I just wanted to share some weird thing that was said today. Someday soon I’ll make a post about my mom and step dad’s experience vacationing in Cuba a few years ago (I actually have that post all written down but have yet to publish it).