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I do not know the origing, but my uncle has been saying it since before Reddit was a thing.

Many things used to be near buy it for life. The terminology is still used in government economic reports. Appliances such as refrigerators, freezers, washers, dryers, dishwashers, stoves and more are still called “durable goods”. They sure were. Not any more. Today things are not built to last. They call that….

“planned obsolescence”

a policy of producing consumer goods that rapidly become obsolete and so require replacing, achieved by frequent changes in design, termination of the supply of spare parts, and the use of nondurable materials. =profit!

The earliest I can remember it used was in 1990s Moen faucet ads. "Buy it for looks, buy it for life."

Planned obsolescence is something like a phone that stops supporting new software and no longer functions because of it. Poorly made appliances are just poorly made. They quit working because the quality is low.

The semantics mean nothing. The plan is for consumers to buy more often. Even the hardcore green environment people don’t “get” it. More crap to put in landfills and pollute.

“The reason is, largely, survivor bias:

Survivor bias refers to the tendency to focus on the examples of something that have survived while ignoring those that did not. In the context of understanding how things were made in the past, survivor bias can lead to a number of mistakes, including:

Overestimating the success rate of historical products or processes: For example, if you only examine the tools or artifacts that have been well-preserved over time, you may think that all tools or artifacts from a certain period were of high quality, when in fact many were not. Assuming that historical products or processes were optimal or efficient: Just because something has survived does not mean it was the best possible version of that thing. For example, an ancient pottery piece which has survived might not be the most technically perfect one and there were other better designs that failed in preservation over time Ignoring important innovations that failed: It is possible that some of the most important innovations in a particular field never made it to the present day because they were unsuccessful or didn't gain enough traction. By only looking at the products or processes that have survived, we can easily overlook these innovations and fail to understand the full range of ideas and experimentation that took place in the past. Failing to appreciate the role of luck in the survival of certain things: Sometimes, the survival of a particular product or process is simply a matter of luck. For example, a ship that sank in a calm sea and was quickly discovered by treasure hunters will be better preserved than one that sank in a stormy sea.”

https://www.quora.com/50-years-ago-it-seemed-like-things-were-made-better-quality-wise-Why?share=1

They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To: Are Old Appliances Better Than New Ones? They could, and they could be energy efficient.

https://www.homeserve.com/en-us/blog/home-improvement/old-appliances-vs-new-appliances/

And yes, we all know modern appliances are energy efficient. In the old days electricity was cheap.

A 20-year-old refrigerator could use 1,700 kWh of electricity every year, compared with about 450 kWh for a similarly sized new ENERGY STAR model. At an electrical cost of 12 cents per kWh, that represents a savings of $150 per year and a potential payback of about 7-9 years.

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Reddit has been a thing since at least 2005.