Frank M. Robinson 23 min read

A product guaranteed forever sounds like every consumer's dream, but in a society built on endless buying, an item that never wears out is a dangerous thing.

Frank M. Robinson's 1955 story sharpens a satirical social-SF tale from the collision of eternal durability and a throwaway economy. Sharp, ironic golden-age SF. Read it for a clever story about what happens when 'guaranteed forever' actually means it, and who stands to lose.

In its time

Published in 1955, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

23 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).

Illustrated by

W. E. Terry