Fabricados para no durar (Comprar, tirar, comprar) SUB

http://www.rtve.es/television/documentales/comprar-tirar-comprar/
http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/el-documental/documental-comprar-tirar-comprar/983391/
"Baterías que se 'mueren' a los 18 meses de ser estrenadas, impresoras que se bloquean al llegar a un número determinado de impresiones, bombillas que se funden a las mil horas... ¿Por qué, pese a los avances tecnológicos, los productos de consumo duran cada vez menos? ¿Quieres saber dónde terminan?"
"Comprar, tirar, comprar"; un documental que nos revela el secreto: obsolescencia programada, el motor de la economía moderna. Rodado en España, Francia, Alemania, Estados Unidos y Ghana hace un recorrido por la historia de una práctica empresarial que consiste en la reducción deliberada de la vida de un producto para incrementar su consumo porque, como ya publicaba en 1928 una influyente revista de publicidad norteamericana, "un artículo que no se desgasta es una tragedia para los negocios".

This is Marcos from Barcelona,

but he could be anyone... anywhere.

What is about to happen to him,

occures daily in offices and homes
all over the world.

A part inside the printer has failed.

And the fanufactures sends Marcos
to technical support.

A technician can make a diagnosis

but it costs 15 euros plus VAT.

It has become difficult
to find parts for this.

It's not worth repairing.

Repair will cost 110-120 euros.

Printers cost as low as 39 euros.

I would advise you buy a new printer.

It's best to buy a new one.

It's no coincidence that all three
shop keepers suggest buying a new printer.

If he agrees, Marcos will become
yet another victim

of the planned obsolescence,

the secret mechanism at the heart
of our consumer's society.

...

....

We live in a society
ruled by economic growth.

We not only grow to meet demand,

but grow for the sake of growth.

...

...

...

...

This film will reveal
how planned obsolescence

has defined our lifes ever
since the 1920s,

when fanufacturers started
shortening lifes of products

to increase the consumer's demand.

They decided to shorten
the lifespan to 1000 hours.

We will find out
how designers and engineers

were made to adopt
new values and objectives.

...

...

...

...

A new generation of consumers

has started challenging
the manufacturers.

Is it possible to imagine

a viable economy
without planned obsolescence?

Without its impact on the environment?

The posteriority will never forget us.

....

....

...

Wellcome to Livermore, Colifornia,

home of the longest burning light bulb.

I am Lynn Owens,

and I am chairman
of the lightbulb committee.

In 1972, we discovered

that the lightbulb
that was hanging in the fire station

was a significant light bulb.

The light bulb
over the Livermore fire station

has been burning continously
since 1901.

Ironically,

the bulb is already outlasted
two webcams.

In 2001,
when the bulb was 100 years old,

the people of Livermore
threw up a big birthday party.

American style.

We were hoping to get 200 people

but finally, we ended up
with 800 or 900 people showing up..

You can imagine to sing
a birthday song to a light bulb?

We didn't think they would.
But they did.

The origin of the bulb,

it was produced
in a town called Shelby, Ohio,

back around 1895.

They were put together
by some very interesting ladies

and some gentlemen of the company.

The filament was invented
by Adolphe Chaillet.

He invented his filament to last.

Why does this filament last?
I don't know.

It's a secret that died with him.

Chaillet's formula for a long lasting filament

is not the only mistery in the history of light bulbs.

A much bigger secret is

how the light bulb became

the first victim
of planned obsolescence.

Christmas Eve 1924 was a special day.

In a backroom at Geneve

suit wearing men
met to create a secret plan.

They established
the first worldwide cartel.

Their goal was to control
the production of lightbulbs

and to divide the world market
between them.

The cartel was called Phoebus.

Phoebos included the main lightbulb
manufacturers in Europe and USA,

and even far away colonies
like in Asia and Africa.

They would change the patents,
control the production -

- and above all
control consumption.

It is better for the companies that
bulbs must be changed more often.

Lasting lights are an
economic disadvantage.

Initially, manufacturers striked
for a long life span of their bulbs.

On October twenty-first 1871,

numerous experiments resulted

in the production of a small unit lamp
of comparatively enormous resistance.

The filament being under conditions
of great stability after this result...

Tomas Edison's first commercial bulb
on sell by 1881...

lasted 1500 hours.

By 1924,
when the Phoebus cartel was founded,

manufacturers proudly advertised
life spans up to 2500 hours

and stressed the longevity of their bulbs.

The members of Phoebus thought:

"Let's limit the lifespan of
a light bulb to 1000 hours."

In 1925 they appointed a group called

"The 1000 Hour Life Committee",

- that would technically reduce the time
an incandescent lamp could burn.

80 years later,

Helmut Höge, an historiant from Berlin,

uncoveres proves
of the committee's activities

hidden in the internal documents
of the founding members of the cartel:

such as Phillips in Holland,

Osram in Germany,

and Compagnie des Lampes in France.

Here we have a cartel document:

"The average life of lamps for
General Lighting Service", -

"must not be guatanteed,
published or offered", -

"for another value than 1000 hours."

Under pressure from the cartel,

the member companies conducted experiments
to create a more fragil lightbulb,

that would conform
with the new 1000 hours norm.

All production was managered rigorously

to make sure cartel members cumplied.

One measure was to set up

a stand with many shelves -

- to which different types
of lightbulbs were connected to -

So the Company Osram
was abled to register

how long they lasted.

Phoebus enforced its rules
through an elaborated burocracy:

Members were fined heavily if their
monthly life reports were off the mark.

Here we have a list of fines from 1929.

It shows how many Swiss francs
companies had to pay -

- for example, here when the life
of a bulb was about 1500 hours.

As planned obsolescence took effect,

lifespans fell steadily.

in just 2 years,
they dropped from 2500 hours...

to less than 1500 hours.

By the 1940s,
the cartel had reached its goal.

1000 hours had become the standard lifespan for bulbs.

I can see how this was
very atempting in 1932.

....

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

Officially, Phoebus never existed,

although it's tracks
have always been there.

The strategy has been
to constantly change names.

They used the name "The International
Energy Cartel" and others.

The point is that this idea
as an institution still exists.

In Barcelona,

Marcos hasn't followed the advise
of the shopkeepers to replace his printer.

He is determined to repair it,

and he has found somebody
on the internet

who discovered
what actually happened to his printer.

The dirty little secret
of the inkjet printers.

I tried to print a document and it said
"parts of the printer requiere replacement".

So I decided to do
a little servicing of my own.

Hello, Marcos, I received your message.

Marcos has contacted
the author of the video.

I looked into the printer and there was a sponge

:::

:::

:::

....

and it won't function anymore.

Their justification is they don't
wanna dirty your desk with ink.

But I think the problem goes
deeper than that.

It's the way technology works:
it is just designed to fail.

Planned obsolescence merged
at the same time

as the mass production
and the consumers society.

The whole issue with products
being made to last less long

is part of a whole pattern
that began in the Industrial Revolution

when the new machines were producing
goods so much more cheaply

which was a great thing for consumers.

But consumers couldn't keep up
with the machines.

There was so much production.

As early as 1928,
an influential advertising magazine warned:

" an article that refuses to wear out
is a tragedy of business."

In fact, mass production made many goods

widely available, the prices dropped

and many people started shopping for fun

rather than for need.

The economy was booming.

In 1929, the emergent consumer society
came to a full stop,

when the Wall Street crashes the USA
into a deep economic ressetion.

...

In 1933, the 25% was unemployed.

People no longer queued for goods,

but for work and for food.

From New York came a radical proposal
on how to kick start the economy again.

Bernard London, a prominent broker,

suggested ending the depression

by making planned obsolescence
composery by law.

It was the first time
the concept was put into writing.

Under Bernard London's proposal,
all products was given a leace of life

set with a expiry date,

after which they
would considered legally dead.

Consumers would turn them over
to a government agency

where they would be destroyed.

He was trying to achieve a balance
between capital and labor

where there would be always
a market for new goods.

So there would be always need for labor,

and there would always be
a reward for capital.

Bernard London believed that
with compostery planned obsolescence

the wheels of industry would keep turning,

people would keep consuming

and everyone would have a job.

Giles Slade has come to New York
to investigate the person behind the idea.

He wants to find out
if for Bernard London

the planned obsolescence
was purely about profits

or about helping the unemployed.

Dorothea Weitzner remembers
meeting Bernard London in the 30s

during a family outing.

Don't tell me which one he is..

Isn't that interesting!

Definitely intellectual looking...

-You met Bernard London in 1933...

-When I was 16 or 17 years old...

my Dad had a big Cadillac car,

which was the size of a Zepellin.

Mother was driving, and Dad in the front,

and the Londons
were sitting in the back.

Dad said that Mr. London
should explain his philosophy to me.

He was an interesting man
and he just told me in a few words

that this was his idea
to reduce the depression.

We were an economic mess,
worth than today even.

He was obsessed with this idea,

like an artist is obsessed
with his paintings.

He actually whispered to me,

that he was afraid that his theory
was maybe to radical.

In fact, Bernard London's proposal
was ignored

and obsolescence by legal obligation
was never put into practice.

20 years later, in the 1950s,

the idea resurfaced,

but with a crucial twist:

instead of forcing planned obsolescence
on the consumers

they would be seduced by it.

Planned Obsolescence:

the desire on the part of the consumer

to own something

a little newer, a little better,

a little sooner than is necessary.

This is the voice of Brook Stevens,

the apostol of planned obsolescence
in postwar America.

This industrial designer

created everything from household
appliances to cars and trains

always with planned obsolescence in mind.

In spirit with the times,

Brook Stevens' designs
convades speed and modernity.

Even the house, he lived in, was inusual.

This is the house
my father designed and I grew up in.

When it was being build,

everyone thought
it would be the new bus station

because it was not looking
like a traditional home.

The most important for my father was

when designing a product was

He detested bland productos,

that didn't create any desire
within the consumer

to inspire the purchase.

Unlike the European approach in the past,

where they tryed to make the very
best product and make it last forever

....

....

The approach in America is one

of making the American consumer unhappy

with the product that he has enjoyed,

having passed it on
to the second hand market

and obtain the newest product
with the newest possible look.

Brook Stevens travelled all over the US

to promote planned obsolescence
in speech after speech.

His approach
became the gospel of the time.

...

....

...

Design and marketing

seduced consumers into always
desiring the latest model.

My father never designed a product

to intentionally fail

or become obsolete for some functional
reason in a short periode of time.

Planned obsolescence is absolutely
on the consumer's discretion.

Nobody is forcing the consumer to go
into the store and purchase a product.

They go in under their own free will,

It's their choice.

Freedom and happiness
through unlimited consumption:

the American way of life in the 1950s

became the foundation of the
consumers society as we know it today.

Without planned obsolescence

these places wouldn't exist.

There wouldn't be any products,
there wouln't be any industry,

there wouldn't be any designers,
any architects,

there wouldn't be any servants, cleaners

there wouldn't be any security guards,

all the jobs would go.

So, how often you change your mobiles?

-Every 18 month.
- Once a year.

These days, planned obsolescence

is an integral part of the curricula
of design and engineering schools.

Boris Knuv lections on the concept
of product's life circle:

a modern eufemism for
"planned obsolescence".

I went shopping for you.

I bought a couple of things:

a pan,

salt, a shirt, another shirt...

Students are taught

how to design for a business world

dominated by one single goal:

frequent repeated purchase.

I pass this around and you tell me

how long it takes untill they fail.

Designers have to understand
what company they work for.

The company decides on a business model

how often they want
to renew their products.

This information is given to designers

...

...

Planned obsolescence

is at the root of the substantial
economic growth

that the Western world
is experienced since the 1950s.

Ever since,

growth is the holy grale of our economy.

Growth Society's logic is not
only

to grow to meet demand -

- but to grow for the sake of growth;
unbounded growth in production -

- that is justified through
the boundless growth in consumption.

The three crucial factors are advertising,
planned obsolescence and credit.

Serge Latouche is a noted critic
of the growth society

and has written extensively about its mechanisms.

The three crucial factors are:

advertising, planned obsolescence and credit.

Since the last generation,

our role in life seems to be just
to consume things with credits

to borrow money
to buy things we don't need.

That makes no real sense to me at all.

Critics of the growth society

point out that it's unsustainable
on a long run

because it's based
on a flagrant contadiction.

Anyone who thinks that infinite growth
is consistent with a finite planet -

- is either crazy, or an economist.

The problem is that now
we've all become economists.

Why a product is produced
every 3 minutes?

Is this necessary?

Many people has realized
that there was a need to change

when they were told by politicians
to go shopping

as the best way to restart the economy.

With this Growth Society

we are sitting in a racing car

-- that no longer has a driver,
running at full speed --

and that will end up

crashing into
a wall or run off a cliff.

Looking at the service manuals
of different printers,

Marcos realizes
that the lifespan of many printers

is set up by the engineers
right from the start.

They achieve this by placing a chip
deep inside the printer.

I have found the chip called EEPROM,

which stores the number of prints.

And when the user reaches
a preset number of prints,

the printer locks up.

How do engineers feel

about designing products to fail?

The dilema is captiured
in a British film from 1951,

where a young chemist invents
an everlasting thread.

He believes that great progress
had been made.

But not everyone is happy
with his discovery.

And soon he finds himself on the run-
not only from the factory owners,

but also from the workers,
all fearing for their jobs.

Well, that's really interesting,
it reminds me of something

that actually really happened
in the textil industry.

In 1940, the chemical giant DuPont

anounced the arrival
of a revolutionary synthetic fiber:

nylon!

Girls celebrated the new longlasting stockings.

But the joy was short lived.

My father worked for Dupont

before and after the war,
in the nylon division

and he told me a story
when nylon first came out

and they were trying it out
for stockings

the men of his division were asked
to take these stockings home

for their wifes and girlfriends
to try out.

My father brought them home
to my mother,

and she was delited with the first products
because they were so sturdy.

The Dupont chemists had every reason
to be proud of their achievement,

as even the men towded
the strength of the nylon stockings.

The problem was, they lasted too long,

the women were very happy with the fact
that they didn't get runners in them,

unfortunately this meant that
the companies producing the stockings

were not going to sell very many.

Dupont gave new instructions
to Nicole Fox's father and his colegues.

The men in his division had to go back
to the drawing board

to try to make the fibers weaker,

and come out with something
that was more fragil and would run,

and so that the stockings
wouldn't last as long.

The same chemists who applied
their skills to make durable nylons,

went with the spirit of the times
and made them more fragile.

This everylasting thread
disappeared from the factories,

just like in the cinema.

We need control of this discovery.

If you want the twice the ammount
of the contract, we will pay it.

a cuarter of a million...

...

What did the Dupont chemists feel

about reducing the life of the products?

Must have been
frustating for the engineers

to have to use their skills
to make an inferior product,

after they tried so hard
to make a good product.

But I suppose
that is the outsider's view.

Probably they just had a job to do.

Make it strong, make it weak-
that was their job.

For engineers,
it was a complicated ethical time.

This confrontation
with planned obsolescence

provoked them to examine
their most basic ethical concepts.

There was an old school of engineers
that believed

that they should make prominent usable
products that will never break.

And there was a new school of engineers
that were driven by the market,

they were clearly interested in

making the most disposable
products that they could.

This debate resolved itself

by the new school of engineers
taking over.

Planned obsolescence
did not only afect engineers,

the frustation of ordinary consumers

is reflected
in Arthur Miller's classic play

"Death of a Salesman".

Just like Willie Lomax,

all what consumers could do
was complain powerlessly.

...

....

...

...

...

...

Little consumers know that
on the other side of the Iron Curtine-

in the countries of the Eastern block-

there was a whole economy
without planned obsolescence.

The communist economy
wasn't ruled by the free market,

but centrally planned by the state.

It was inefficient and plagued
by a chronic shortage of resources.

In such a system,

planned obsolescence
did not make any sense.

In former east Germany,

the most efficient communist economy,

official regulations estipulated
that fridges and washing machines

should work for 25 years.

I bought this DDR-fridge in 1985.

It is 24 years old.

The light bulb is the same age,
I have never changed it.

It is 25 years old.

In 1981,
a lighting factory in East Germany

launched a long life bulb.

They took it to an
international ligthting fair

looking for buyers from the West.

When the East Germans in 1981

presented the bulb

at a fair in Hanover, -

- colleagues in the West said:
"You will make yourselves unemployed."

East Germans engineers replied:

"On the contrary." -

- "By saving resources
and not wasting tungsten" -

- "we will keep our jobs."

The Western buyers rejected the bulb.

In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down.

The factory was closed

and the Eastern German longlife bulb
went to out of production.

Now, it only can be found
in exhibitions and museums.

20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall,

consumerism is as rampened
in the West as in the East.

But there is one difference:
in the age of the internet,

the consumers are ready to fight
against planned obsolescence.

The first me made
that really broke through

was a movie about the iPod.

I was completely broke
when I bought this iPod

which costs about 400 or 500 dollars.

About 8 months later- or 12-
the battery died.

I called Apple to replace the battery

and their policy at the time

was to tell their consumers
to buy a new iPod.

- Better buy a new one.

- Aplle doesn't offer...
-No.

- Apple doesn't offer a new battery?
-No.

I wasn't that the battery died
that was annoying..

in my Nokia cell phone,

the battery dies and I buy a new one.

Even in my Apple laptop
when the battery would die

you would replace the battery.

But in the iPod,
this expensive piece of hardware,

when the battery died,
you had to replace the entiry unit.

My brother had the idea
to make a movie just about that.

We went around with a stencil

spray painting over advertising of iPod.

"iPod's unreplaceable battery
lasts only 18 months."

We put the video in our own site,
www. ipodsdirtysecret. com.

In the first month,

there were 6 million views

and the site went absolutely bananas.

A lawyer in San Francisco,
Elizabeth Pritzkar,

heard about the video,

and together with her associated decided
to sew Apple over the lifespan of the iPod.

Half century after the lightbulb case,

planned obsolescence was in court again.

When we brought this litigation,

about 2 years after the iPod
was introduced,

Apple had sold about 3 million iPods,
nationwide in the US.

Many of the 3 million iPod owners
had having battery problems,

and were willing to sew.

One of them was Andrew Westley.

We selected from among
the consumers who had called us

individuals who would serve
as representants in a class action.

A class action

is a particular mechanism of the USA.

where a small group of persons
stand for a large group

to bring a claim before a court.

My role in that case
was to represent 1000 of people,

maybe tens of thousands of people.

The case became to be known
as "Westley vs. Apple".

When my friends learned
that this was a major case

they thought I was becoming a radical.

....

In December 2003,

Elizabeth Pritzker filed the case
at the San Mateo County Court,

just a few blocks
from the Apple headquarters.

We asked Apple
for a number of technical documents

regarding the battery life in the iPod,

and we received a lot a technical data

about the battery design,
about the testing of the battery.

We discovered that

the battery in the iPod

was designed from the beginning
to have a really short life.

I do think
that the development of the iPod

was intended to be
one of planned obsolescence.

After a tense few months,

both parts hammered out a settlement:

Apple put a replacement service
for the batteries,

and extended the guaranty for 2 ańos.

The claiments were offered compensation.

One thing that really bothers
me personally, is that

Apple promotes itself

as a young, hip,
forward thinking company.

And for a company like that,
not to have a good environment policy

that allows consumers to return products

for proper recycling

is in contra to their message.

Planned obsolescence produces
a constant stream of waste

which is shipped to 3rd world countries,
such as Ghana in Africa.

It's between 8 or 9 years now,

when I noticed
that a lot of containers came to Ghana

with electronic waste.

We are talking
about end-of-life computers

about end-of-life televisions

which nobody wants
in the developed countries.

Shipping electronic waste
to 3rd world countries

is forbidden by international law.

But the merciants use a simple trick:

they declare the waste
as second-hand goods.

More than 80% of the electronic waste
that arrives in Ghana

is totally be unrepair

and whole container are abandoned
in the dumbsides all around the country.

We are here
at the dumbside of Agbogbloshie.

In the past, we had this beautiful river
called Odaw river,

...

It had so much fish.

After the school,
actually not very far from here,

we came to play football
and hang around the river.

The fishermen would organize boat rides.

But now it's all finished,
it's all gone.

And that makes me really really sad
and it makes me angry.

These days, there are no school kids
playing here after class.

Instead, youngsters from poor families
come here looking for scrapmetal.

They burn the plastic covered cables
to salvage the metal inside.

What is left,

is picked up from the younger children
looking for any tiny pieces of metal

which the older boys may have missed.

Those behind the shipments say:

"well, we try to break the digital divide...

between Europe, America and
then the rest as Africa, like Ghana.

But the reality is that
the computers that arrive here

does not work.

It makes no sense to receive

if you cannot deal with it

and the country is used
as the world's trash bin.

The trash that has been
so long hidden from view

is now coming in our life

and we have no longer reason
to avoid it.

The waste economy
is reaching its last legs

because fisically there is no space
to put the waste.

In the course of time,
we've come to realize

that the planet we're living on
cannot sustain that forever.

There is a limit of natural resources

and there is a limit to energy resources.

Posterity will never forgive us.

...the throw-away attitudes

the throw-away life styles of people
in the advanced countries.

People all over the world

have started acting
against planned obsolescence.

Mike Anane is fighting against it
from receiving it.

He has started
by collecting information.

This is where I keep the waste
which have property targets.

This says "AMU Centre, North-West Sjaelland",
it's from Denmark.

This is from Germany,
send here just to be damned.

Westminster college,

Apple should know better:
Apple is a company that says to be ecologic

There are a lot of Apple products
that are being damned here.

We have a data base with the asset targets
and contacts

and telephone numbers of the companies
that owned

the electronic waste damned in Ghana.

Mike Anane plannes
to turn this information

into evidence in a Court case.

We need to take some action,
some punitive measure.

We need to process people,

so they stop dumping e-waste in Ghana.

Marcos is on the internet again

looking for a way
to extend the life of his printer.

He has discovered a Russian website
who offers a free software

for printers with a counter chip.

The programmer has even
gone to the trouble

of explaining his personal motivation:

This happens due of a bad construction,

this is their business model,

not a good one for users
and the environment.

So I found the way to create
a userfriendly software

to allow the reset of the counter.

Marcos doesn't know what to expect,

but downloads the software anyway.

From a small village in France,

John Thackara fights planned obsolescence

by helping share
business and design ideas,

ideas which come from all over the globe.

In the poorer countries,
the things are repaired automatically.

The idea to throw away a product
because it breaks

is unthinkable for somebody
in the South.

In India, there is actually a word,
"jugaad",

that describes the tradition
of being able to fix things,

pretty much regardless
of the complexity of it.

We try to find people
who are actively doing projects

rather than making abstract statements

about how awful things are
or that it has to be changed.

One of these people is Warner Phillips,

descendent of the dynasty
of lightbulb manufacturers.

I remember my grandfather taking me to

the Phillips' factories

to show me
how lightbulbs were mass manufactured

which is very cool.

Nearly a 100 years after the creation
of the lightbulb cartel,

Warner Philips follows the family tradition,

but with a different approach:

he produces a LED-bulb
which lasts 25 years.

It's not like there is a green world
and there is a business world.

Business and sustaintibility
is going hand in hand.

Actually, it's the best basis
to build the business on.

The only way to do this

is to consider the true cost

of the resources that have been used.

Also look at the energy consumption,

also the indirect consumption
of transportation.

The transport sector would pay
the actual costs of shipping, -

- not to mention the fact
that oil is unrenewable, -

- if the current price was
multiplied by 20 or 30.

...

...

...

Fighting against planned obsolescence

can also be achieved by rethinking the
engineering and the production of the goods.

A new concept called "cradle to cradle",

claims that if the factories
works as nature

planned obsolescence itself
would become obsolete.

saving, reduction, zero waste, etc.

But nature doesn't save anything,
eg. when a cherry blossoms...

...

Nature produces abundanly,

but fallen blossoms, dead leafs
and other discarded materials are not waste.

They become nutrients for other organisms.

Nature produces no waste,
only nutrients.

Braungart believes that industry can
imitate this virtuous circle of nature.

He proved that this is possible
when he redesigned the production process

of a Swiss textile company.

Imagine a sofa or a chair
with a fabric like this; -

- it's decorations are so toxic that

it must be handled as hazardous waste.

Braungart found that hundreds
of highly toxic chemicals

were used at the factory.

For the production of the new fabrics,

Braungart and his team reduced the list

at 36 sustances,
all of them biodegradable.

Now we select edible materials.

You should be able
to have this with your muesli.

In a waste-based society,

short-life products
will cause problems of waste.

But if manufactureres use nutrients,

the products can become something new.

For the more radical critics
of planned obsolescence,

reforming production is not enough:

they want to rethink our
entiry economic system and our values.

A true revolution
requires a cultural change, -

- a paradigm shift and
a change in mentality.

This revolution is called "De-growth".

Serge Latouche travels
from conference to conference

explaining how to get out
of the growth society alltogether.

Anti-Growth is a provocative
slogan that will break -

the way of thought

that considers infine growth
to be possible and sustainable.

It marks the necessity
to change our logic.

The main message of anti-growth is

to reduce our environmental footprint, -

- our waste, overproduction
and overconsumption.

By reducing production and consumption
we get more free time -

- to develop other forms of wealth

that can't be exhausted, -

- for example
friendship and learning.

...

...

...

....

...

...

...

If happiness was dependent
on our consumption level, -

we should be 100% content.

We consume 26 times more
than in Marx's time.

But all studies show

that people are not 20 times happier.

Because happiness is always subjective.

Critics of degrowth say that
it will destroy our modern economy

and would take us straight
back to the Stone Age.

To return to a society
of sustainable development -

To return to a society
of sustainable development -

- is not to go back to the
Stone Age, but to the 1960s.

- is not to go back to the
Stone Age, but to the 1960s.

It is far from the Stone Age.

Anti-Growth Society meets
Ghandi's vision:

"The world is big enough

to satisfy everyone's needs," -

- "but will always be too small

to satisfy individual greed."

Marcos is installing
the russian freeware on his computer.

The new software allowes him

to reset the counter chip
inside his printer back to zero.

The printer inmediately unlocks.