Sometimes though, there is truth in a necessity for planned obsolescence. The original Curtis-Mathes televisions, for instance, were once billed as the only TV you'd ever need to buy. They were the most expensive TVs you could find, but so well made they lasted unendingly – so they didn't have enough of a repeat customer base to survive. The company folded in the early 1980s, unable to hold out until the escalating technological march for all things with a screen became the norm, .

Full disclosure, the company made a bit of a relaunch in the early 2010s. However, they've never quite caught on the way the did back in the 1060s and 70s.

There is a need to generate continuing need for products. But yes, it's been taken to an extreme in our current society of constant clamor for the "best" cheapest deal that is really just consumerism of the disposable.