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Planned obsolescence, or built-in obsolescence, in industrial design and economics is a policy of planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life, so it will become obsolete (that is, unfashionable or no longer functional) after a certain period of time. The rationale behind the strategy is to generate long-term sales volume by reducing the time between repeat purchases (referred to as "shortening the replacement cycle").

What if large-scale initiatives to regulate and limit planned obsolescence appeared early in the 20th century?

At the minimum, something like France's legislation requiring that appliance manufacturers and vendors declare the intended product lifespans, and to inform consumers how long spare parts for a given product will be produced.

One option would be to loosen trade barriers and have more competition, or have a single state-owned enterprise in a non monopolistic industry build long-lasting products causing competition for durable products in that industry.

At the most extreme strawmannish example, something like a communist government mandating that all products should last for 100 years.

How would economy, technology, standard of living, etc. differ if more regulation existed in favor of products built to last/be continuously repairable, or against the strategy of planned obsolescence?
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