enshittification-of-the-material-world/planned obsolescence -
sometimes a widget made in 2015 breaks earlier than one made in 1975 because the widget company wants to force you to buy more widgets.
sometimes it breaks earlier because they drove as much cost out of its manufacturing as they could, and a 2015 widget costs $30 while a 1970 widget costs $150. and hey, now widgets are accessible to many more people!
sometimes it's because you can still get a $150 quality widget in 2015 and it'll last roughly as long, but now it's possible to get a $30 widget, and most people do, so it seems like they're worse
sometimes it's survivorship bias. the 1975 widgets that broke within 10 years did their breaking and don't survive in memory. The 2015 widgets that will last 30 years have only 10 years to their name. they are unremarkable to us as well.
sometimes it's service and maintenance. is the new widget easy to maintain? is it meant to receive maintenance? is it repairable? this question drives towards both the manufacturer (did you make it possible to service? unlike my fridge, which can't even have its lightbulb replaced - thanks, landlord) and towards the consumer (are you upholding your end of the bargain? could a $10 spare part do instead of a replacement? how many times has the 1975 widget been serviced or repaired?)
sometimes it's... some project manager somewhere needs to stake their name on optimizing costs by finding some nuisance to cheapen for the producer.
and sometimes it's that, yeah, they can profit more on a $30 widget that costs $5 to produce than one that costs $25. but I'm less mad about the world when only some of the cheapened objects are enshittified
