Planned obsolescence has been a concept for a lot longer than the 1960s, and isn’t really applicable in the way you suggest. Typically, planned obsolescence is when new models with new features come out every so often- think cars, or computers, or phones. A new wrinkle is when manufacturers stop supporting older versions, forcing you to upgrade.
What you’re describing is the situation where all appliances were made to a very high standard AND cost a lot of money. I suspect that in the 1960s and before, there was some vaguely cartel-ish action going on- a few manufacturers and little competition, so no pressure to drop prices, and not enough time (or some other reason) for quality to significantly drop.
Then, I suspect that cheap Japanese imports did very well in the market, since consumers were very price-sensitive. Manufacturers caught on, made less expensive versions, and the prices (and durability) dropped, as price is what sells.
I mean, in this day and age, a toaster costs like $10-20 and lasts like 15 years. Would you spend $60for a toaster that would last 40 years, or just upgrade every 15 years, and match your toaster to your decor, or get features you wish you’d got the first time around, etc… ?
I don’t know that I’m going to be alive in 40 years.
It is true that while planned obsolescence has been around for a while, thing become obsolete much more quickly now, and not just for convenience or bells and whistles, but safety.
The old Electrolux vacuum my mother has has a new cord, not because the old one wasn’t working, but because it wasn’t polarized, and it didn’t have rubber insulation, so she had it replaced with a safer one. I remember when I was a kid my mother tossed out a few inexpensive appliances that had been inherited from her grandmother, because they had cloth insulation on the cords. My mother didn’t trust my father to replace the cords properly, and she had no idea how to do it herself, and the cost of a new cord plus paying someone to replace it was the same as a new appliance, so she got new stuff, but the old ones were working fine. The vacuum was expensive to replace, though and worth the expensive of replacing the cord.
Oh YEAH! I’m into antique radios and tube amps, not so much an audiophile, but if these were better quality Klipsch when new they are likely worth $100’s, could be several $100, depends…
Our house was built in 1995 and the fridge and cooktop are original equipment - both are working quite well. I had an appliance guy tell me recently that we should keep that fridge as long as we can, as the quality just isn’t what it used to be. The cooktop is the basic ceramic-coil electric thing - about as basic as it gets. I keep wishing it would die so I could splurge on a nifty new induction cooktop but it just keeps soldiering on.
For things older than that: our food processor is 32 years old - only gets used a handful of times a year. The Kitchenaid stand mixer is about 21 years old and sees somewhat more use. I expect I’ll pass that one down to one of the kids some day.
The other major appliances are much newer. The clothes washer - which was on the fritz for a few months - is about 10 years old and we’re not expecting it to last that much longer.
In an example of newer stuff having more things that can go wrong, the behavior ultimately turned out to be one of the control boards, that had apparently been shorting out. When the technician decided THAT was the problem (after doing 2 other non-helpful fixes), he showed me the old one, that had burn marks on it :eek:. To add to the fun: we had to wait 10 days for them to get the replacement part… he came to install it, and it didn’t work. Yep, the repair part was bad.
Somehow, he managed to find a spare that same day (then why did it take 10 days for the first one??) which worked just fine.
My in-laws have a much older top-loading washer that is probably 20-25 years old and works just fine - no fancy circuitry on that one.
I have a Pioneer turntable that I still use occasionally. I purchased it in 1977.
If lamps count, I have two table lamps from my parents’ first apartment, circa 1955. And I have a floor lamp from my grandmother which has to date back to the 30s or 40s.
We have two appliances that date from the late 70s: A chest freezer that has been in continuous use since then and a food mill, original Cuisinart that still works although the plastic bowl is slowly disintegrating and seems to be unreplaceable. We use it probably a dozen times a week.
We also have an electric rotisserie that we got as a wedding present very nearly 52 years ago. We don’t use it very often and the cord looks like hell because of all the heat.
We have a dial phone that is at least 45 years old since that is the age of my office building and when they put in a new phone system I swiped a few of the old phones, one of which is still connected and running.
I had a dial phone until we stopped having a landline five years ago. It fit my TTY, but texting and Facetime have pretty much made TTYs obsolete-- and mine was the only reason I had a landline for so long. Once all my Deaf friends had either computers or cell phones, I didn’t need a TTY. Yes, it took that long for some of the older ones to give up on the TTY. As far as I know the phone and TTY still work. I keep them as sort of museum pieces.
My mother has a landline, and still uses a dial phone she has had since at least 1970, and probably earlier.
It’s one of those with the numbers on little cards, cut in half, that flip over.
The clicking of the flip card got annoying in the middle of the night, so it got relegated to the garage (don’t know why i needed an alarm clock in the garage). It’s still plugged in, and still flipping and clicking.
You guys with the old stereo/hi-fi equipment, are you still using them regularly?
I’ve got a Phase Linear power amp my dad got in like the late 70’s that I have/has been used nearly every day of my life. It’s powering my current set up. My dad also still has some old wharfendale speakers he got fresh outta college in like 1969, but he hasn’t used them in decades.