Made to Break: Part Two

What I liked about the Radio, Radio section of Made to Break was how it reminded me of when I was young, and how I used to watch my father haul a large tool box of 'tubes' in the back of his van when he drove to repair a customer's television. He owned a television repair business for twenty five years. During that time we saw many trasformations due to obsolescence. That box eventually disappeared as technology changed to transistors and so on. What Radio, Radio also explained was how friendship only goes so far in business. Sarnoff and Armstrong were the perfect example of this. One key point made was how technology became so specific that manufacturers were able to control the product's durability life span. "By the 1950's, product life spans were no longer left to chance but were created by plan, and it is at this moment that the phrase planned obsolescence acquired the additional meaning of "death dating.""(p113)
The War section of the book also revealed some fascinating history. The scientific push for the development of nylon (by DuPont)was a result of the political climate and the Japanese silk industry (P117). It is amazing how the economies of countries were played like a game of chess; and how political decisions were made as a result of economic stresses. For example,this case with Japan joining the Axis alliance (p122)due to their crumbling silk industry and need for external resources, among other reasons. Because of the political climate it was our economic and political duty to create a synthetic silk and develope an indigenous supply. Who knew so much was involved in the creation of nylon pantyhose! Apparently,some negatives do turn out to be positives.