Welcome to the Lemon Age where nothing lasts forever, much less a few years. Don't worry, you're not imagining it. A recent German study found the percentage of domestic appliances sold to replace a broken device in the home more than doubled in the eight years to 2012.

This weekend the six-month-old computer printer will need new ink. It will be cheaper to buy a new one. And no doubt a message will arrive in the next few days ordering me to update the operating system of my phone to fix a few bugs and give me new options I never asked for or will ever use.

Clearly, NASA's engineers never took up lucrative careers in the private retail sector. A month ago our refrigerator had to be replaced after 18 months of constant leaks. Last week the dishwasher, barely a year old, was hauled back to its manufacturer after a leak caused kitchen benches to swell and warp. None of this was easily achieved, either. There were long waits on the phone until a "customer service officer" could be spoken to. Diaries had to be rearranged to allow repairmen access to conduct inspections. Weeks passed while warranties were examined. Voyager 1, meanwhile, had travelled a further 44 million kilometres into space.

Voyager 1, a small spacecraft launched in 1977 to explore the solar system, is now 18.8 billion kilometres from earth and continues plunging into the frigid recesses of space at an incredible 61,000 kilometres an hour.

Academics and retail analysts have dubbed this all-too-familiar reality "planned obsolescence" – manufacturers deliberately building products that cater for "changing consumer needs", more corporate jargon for keeping profits up as we suckers replace or repair the junk they foist on us.

Planned obsolescence? Another quaint vanilla phrase for what should be dubbed thievery or incompetence on a grand scale. It's why you experience that sinking feeling every time you step out of a store with a parcel in your hand. Will it work? How long before I have to replace it?

There are exceptions, of course. Our cars are now safer and far more reliable than a generation ago and their lifespan has been extended by years. But overall customer satisfaction levels have never been lower and while you can partly blame this on our gullibility and never ending appetite for new products, this is an issue that goes far beyond the premature lifespans of our kettles and washing machines.

One of our local tradies has been working on building sites since the launch of Voyager 1. He's decided to down tools and retire while he can get out with his reputation intact, embarrassed by the cheap wiring systems many of his builders are now installing. Australia's east coast construction boom, he says, has created a flood of inferior Chinese products and no one, he says, seems to care any more. At least, not until they start failing and safety concerns begin emerging.

By then it may be too late. You certainly won't hear any squeals of concern coming from big business, which argues that more production and our insatiable desire for more things leads to more jobs and greater economic growth. Just go back to the TV news reports in the lead-up to last Christmas, when breathless reporters covered the start of "the spending season" as though it were a sporting event, hailing the unveiling of a new shopping centre as an architectural wonder to rival a cathedral. Buy more stuff, people. When you're sick of it, or it breaks down, just get some more.