it's not that my $10 coffee machine refusing to work is catastrophic, it's that i am entirely cognizant of the reality that it was designed to break. if i had more time, i'd sue out of principle.

it's this idea of forced obsolescence. they actually teach graduate courses about it. it's fancy language for designing things in order to break, so they'll be repurchased. and, it's a central aspect of our throwaway, consumerist culture.

there's no use in boycotting because everybody does it. it's an industry standard in industry after industry. graduate level courses are usually for general application; it's getting the idea of making things badly across, so it can be applied on a general basis.

there's nothing in a coffee machine to break, so they design the switch badly on purpose. and, the way they did it is really dangerous. the burner comes on, but the pump doesn't.

result: a useless pile of plastic and metal, and another $0.50 of profit from me after taxes and payouts. ugh.

if we were to sit down and purposefully design the dumbest society possible, we really couldn't do much better than what we've already got.

and, of course there should be a law against it, but you've probably forgotten that regulating corporations is COMMUNISM.

COMMUNIST!!!