What are some notable scams in history that went unnoticed for so long?

Bady@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 383 points –
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Phoebus Cartel, essentially the few oligopolistic light bulb companies got together and colluded and intentionally reduced the lifespan of light bulbs.

The rate at which our LED bulbs are failing (usually over-driven leds or garbage capacitors for the power supply), has me thinking it’s still a thing, only less formal and more profitable.

See dubai bulbs for why.

this one wasn't really that bad, yes they shortened the life span of the bulbs, but incandescent bulbs were a solved problem at that time, and longer lasting bulbs meant that they must produce less light. that bulb that's lasted a 100 years or whatever, is very very dim, and that's why it's still going. also, dimmer (longer lasting) bulbs are less efficient for the amount of light you get, and some of the lightbulb manufacturers were also power companies, which were struggling with energy and so had reason to want more efficient lightbulbs. here's a great video on the topic https://youtube.com/watch?v=zb7Bs98KmnY