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RE: Low Quality Junk Products and Planned Obsolescence
They are making cheap products not because they want to have never ending market, but because 10 other manufacturers are making it at the same price. And people tend to buy cheap things. Would you buy toaster with 100 year warranty if it costs 20x more than cheap brand? No, you would think to your self: this cheap one has 12 month warranty, most probably will last a little bit longer and after that I can buy another of newer design. Same goes everywhere you look.
That is definitely a factor, but you do not pay an engineer to make something as flimsy as possible but still have it last longer than the warranty. Instead, you would pay an engineer to design it to be less costly.
Since i know of engineers paid to do the first part, well then i cannot agree with your conclusion.
I bet these engineers are working not in the toster industry. In some other areas like TVs, mobiles, computers and their parts, home electronics, its a must to limit their life because you as a manufacturer would have heavy losses because of legacy product support (spare parts stocking, legacy support staff, extending licences, upgrading software to be compatible with current things).
Medical and industry products on the other hand are long lasting, but their cost does not end with initial high price - it includes regular OEM part replacements, manufacturer calibrations, OEM consumables, upgrades and etc. at the same high price, which covers legacy support costs for manufacturer.