this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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Fairphone is a for-profit business, correct?
If so, what's there to prevent the company from eventually (or even now) prioritizing profits over the longevity of its products? For example, let's say that their board wants to make higher margins. One way they can accomplish this is to use poor-quality parts in the initial product so that they need to be repaired more often, thus, they sell more replacement parts.
"How to convince myself that I can continue to consume from known bad companies."
They're a limited liability company, so no stock market pressure. As a Dutch BV voting majority can still lie with the founders.
They're on Fairphone 5 now, which is the first one I'd consider buying if I was in the market for a new one phone right now.
Most people buy a new phone if it gets damaged from a drop. It happens quite often. Here you can swap the parts cheaply and with only a screwdriver.
If you wonder how sturdy it is: https://youtu.be/H1UJ5k3yMvA?si=zQ1VEeA8YqMINUR7
This one dives deeper into the lifecycle: https://youtu.be/lU4vv7qCQvg?si=XiE0QBWP6iNMbQJ_
You can find the Lifecycle Analysis of Frauenhofer institute with a bit of googling.
And here's Louis Rossman on it: https://youtu.be/EAogtqyN22M?si=9slIZEuTbAZhE__Y
And remember, you can always switch away from Fairphone if they become "evil". It's not like Google, Amazon or the influence of Social Media companies that you can't escape.
Man, as someone who did tons of computer repair and support in my early years, the hoops and loops people go to keep buying stuff from apple, as maybe a bit of an extreme example, is just amazing!
I see it with stuff from amazon, nvidia and ea too, specially frustrating when there are clear less evil alternatives!
The issue is when "less evil" also means "worse product". If "evil" is even an applicable word here