Manufactured Obsolescence

This will be a very short blog since I'm on the desktop and it takes me much longer to maneuver than the laptop and my hand is throbbing. My main question is whether it is possible to buy any appliance or electronic device and expect it to last more than 1-2 years? My parents still have a refrigerator in their garage that's the same one we used growing up meaning it's getting close to 60 years old and it still keeps everything nice and cold. Yesterday, I no sooner hit the "publish" button and my laptop ( 1 1/2 years old) went clunk, clunk, clunk and then crashed. It's pretty clear to me that the hard drive is toast.

I know laptops are less expensive than they used to be but that doesn't give manufacturer's the right to build in a drop dead feature set up to activate shortly after it's been purchased. Of course we don't have the warranty because if we did it would still be working fine.

Maybe they have two product piles they distribute from. One for those who purchase the warranty, those are intended to last so the additional expense was unnecessary and those without who will be back to purchase another one sooner with a warranty. Do you suppose that is what's really going on? Anyway, I'm hoping to get it fixed very soon so I can stay out of this hole we call an office.

I know I'm not alone in this.