http://dotsub.com/view/a...-4df5-ae63-ad85f5572f27
A documentary exploring planned obsolescence, the policy of deliberately flawed product design that has, since its inception a century ago by a cartel of lightbulb manufacturers, been applied to practically all mass produced goods. The implications of this 'design-to-fail' policy are absolutely central to capitalist consumerism, such that to replace your iPod battery or hack your printer's proprietary firmware becomes not just an act of basic product preservation, but a transgression against the values of a system addicted to profit by any means.
Some relevant wiki links...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De-growth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Latouche
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Thackara
Sometimes I believe that this less material life is our truer life, and that our vain presence on the terraqueous globe is itself the secondary or merely virtual phenomenon.