Not More Than 1000 Hours

Found something interesting. And it shows that we have never been a species of Goodwill. For all of history we have always looked out for our own. I guess that's fair enough. But sometimes it may outweigh a lot of things. I don't think this is one of those huge situations. Especially, you know 100 years later 100 years ago. I guess this really was a big deal. I'm talking about light bulbs. And not about how or who invented it. But I'm talking about the commercialization of these. And the cartel-like system that companies had on its production and sales. ---  [Source](https://unsplash.com/photos/incandescent-bulb-on-black-surface-fmTde1Fe23A) --- So the story goes like this. After the first world war not much long after Edison actually invented the light bulb, it was obviously commercialized and there were many companies around the world who produced and manufactured these bulbs for the markets and as any capitalist economies go, over time some of these companies got bigger than the others and they basically consumed them. Small companies got bought out and big ones remained. Eventually it was in a situation where there was one big company per market, one in Asia, one in Europe, one in America and so on. Now what do these companies usually do after they get so big? Obviously they strike some plan between themselves to make themselves richer. And that was the case back then as well. So even though light bulbs were a revolutionary invention, the actual production of them wasn't very complicated. And the sustainability of the products which were needed to make the bulb were also very good. In other words, these lights lasted for a long time. Even now, you have these traditional halogen light bulbs which run for years. So what happens when you have something that works and the company tries to sell you another? You don't buy it. Sales were decreasing year by year in these companies because people's bulbs were just working. They didn't need a new one. So they actually put a cap on how long these bulbs can last. And they put it at 1,000 hours and funnily enough this cartel actually fined companies which produced bulbs that lasted longer than 1,000 hours. There are actually records of these fines being handed out to those companies. You can actually find them on the internet. Although since then technology has gone a long way. And we don't have to rely on 1,000 hours of halogen bulbs. Now we have translucent, fluorescent LED and all those things but it goes to show the businesses were always selfish.