RUMOR #3 - THE KEY TO SUCCESS IS WEALTH AND POWER - THEN HAPPINESS SHALL FOLLOW....

PREMISE A. If we build things too well, they will last and last, leaving their builders out of more work. Therefore, unlike the Romans who built roads and aqueducts and sewers (plumbing and sewerage) that remain to this day, our roads and plumbing have a very short life span before needing to be replaced. Some would argue that the Romans used thousands of slave laborers to do very hard work in creating these. I say that we have machinery now that does very hard work, and usually one human working and 2 humans observing. Enough on that.
I remember watching my grandmother darning our socks with a wooden egg and what we called her "chopsticks". We never threw away a sock unless ir was chewed up by the familyi dog and out of Granny's sphere of repair. Then one time I opened my mother's Mixmaster hand-held beater because it wasn't beating. One could hear the motor whirring, but nothing was happening.
Lo and behold, amidst the metal gears and shafts sat ONE translucent plastic gear, which of course had lost all its teeth. It was that day that I learned of "planned obsolescence' in much of our manufactured materials.
I was guilty of planned obsolescence when I encouraged our high school boarding school students not to eat this wretched bread pudding being served. Well, the hope was that they would scrap the stuff, but instead the nuns were more determined that we were going to eat it. On the seventh night, as captain of the kitchen crew I announced: "Men, grab your spatulas and scrape!!!
Within ten minutes, every bowl was in the big garbage bowl and unceremoniously dumped in the humongous garbage disposal. We often thought that when a nun (they were ancient) would disappear; that machine was their transportation to the hereafter.
At any rate, various manufacturers followed suit, and products soon contained an "achilles heel" and suddenly we had a throw-away culture! Old nylons, old socks, the dark half of a turkey, radios that would quit working, (my grandfather's Philco radio played until he died; 28 some years they had it. Concern for people on the streets waned, and worst of all, throwing away unwanted children.
And as the power seekers saw it, it was critical for them to be in the decision making of what was to be"thrown away" and what had to have a reasonable life expectancy. Having a part in this meant hedging your bets financially to come out on top. Naturally, mistrust, collusion, fear, jealousy, and anger creep into this kind of developing model. Those who want to be proud of the fruit of their labor resent the short lifespan it is being given by those in authority over them. To be continued.......