Cyclical consumption can be characterized as an economical pattern that has wave like trends or cycles. Thus, in order for the economy to function, it must repeat the same trends or go through the same cycles over and over. The same reason that financial bubbles are always followed by a collapse. Too have to big of a gap or low point between repeated cycles, and the economy will collapse.
Cyclical consumption is a very important part of our economies, without it all the economies in the world would collapse as soon as you hit critical mass or maximum entropy of the consumer base. In order for a business to function, it must create a product that the population wants, that people will want or need to buy. Now what happens when that product reaches critical mass such as the car, mobile phone or something as simple as a light bulb? If a product lasts for a very long time, then the company will wither up and die with time since no one will need to purchase their products anymore. So a funny thing happened.
Companies started to make their products purposefully defective, or took design shortcuts that directly comprised the lifespan of the product. Its called 'planned obsolescence' and it's a nasty by-product of capitalism and supply & demand.
The very first light bulb created by Thomas Edison is still burning in his house today. So why do we have light bulbs that last only a couple of thousand hours before it dies; because all the light bulb companies would be out of business by now if they created light bulbs that lasted. So light bulb companies add oxygen to the vacuum inside of a light bulb that causes the filament to oxidize and eventually turn to powder. Electronic makers use more plastic's in iPods, DVD players etc as plastic is cheaper to use, and more prone to failure due to it's head intolerance and environmental susceptibility.
Planned obsolescence also has another nasty side effect; Waste. If we are constantly exposed to buying new products that we need and want, what happens to the old products that we had that are being replaced. They end up in land fills, polluting the environment or being re-used into more useless products that we don't need and eventually end up in the landfill anyway.
Planned obsolescence is using up our planets resources faster than we can recycle it, or do something about it because by the time a lot of us figure out what is happening it will be to late. We are creating scarcity on our planet. Scarcity is the number one cause of all wars, it is the number one cause of crime although that is due to the artificial scarcity in our monetary system which is needed to acquire our needs and wants, so could be considered neurosis by planned obsolescence. The more scarce we make our planets resources; the more war, crime and poverty we will create, and the more that the big countries we live in will abuse the less fortunate and poorer countries elsewhere, something that is already going on. Fantastic system we live in.
About the only real solution, short of ending the monetary system, which is probably the only viable long term solution for the development of the human race is ethical consumerism. Which is pretty much the boycotting of products that use cheap materials, bad practices, sweat shops and other practices that only serve to make their product cheaper, reduces product lifespans, creates endless waste, promotes scarcity in less fortunate countries and forces us to spend our hard earned money on products that should last.
So until we can get rid of money, I will do my best to be an ethical consumer, as I am as guilty, if not more than most people when it comes to supporting cyclical consumption in the past with my needless continuous purchases of gadgets, electronics and things I really don't need.
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