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Is it ethical for companies to manufacture products that easily break, if they have the ability to make them less breakable? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) by ReconciliationTime22128@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Hopefully I’ve worded the question right.

I was once told (I could never verify if it was true) that a crocs company once almost went bankrupt after they made their crocs practically indestructible. Whilst the story was most likely bullshit, it makes me wonder: if a company can make a product that is practically indestructible, is it ethical for them not to make them indestructible, so people will buy more from them?

The way I look at it is, on one hand, I feel like they should make products to the highest quality if they can so that the consumer has to spend less money and that less is wasted, but at the same time if it leads to the company going bankrupt, what of the workers and their families? So I can’t decide, what do you think?

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[-] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 27 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. ... A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. ... But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socio-economic unfairness.

Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

[-] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 3 points 21 hours ago

Haha the first thing I thought of. The finest literary example of representing economics with boots!

[-] Maeve@kbin.earth 1 points 19 hours ago

I just paid about $200 (including taxes and shipping) for a pair of leather work sneakers that should last about a year, if I take good care of them, but sketchers usually break down inside about 3 months of wear. I didn't want to spend it, because gestures at everything, but I had to make the hard decision.

[-] Fallibilist@feddit.uk 2 points 12 hours ago

To be fair, a year is pretty pathetic performance even for work books unless you step on landmines for living.

[-] Maeve@kbin.earth 1 points 9 hours ago

I know, but for the insides to hold up that long for that price nowadays is decent. In older days, shoes were made to last longer, and specifically fitted at the heel and toe.

this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2026

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