Sadly, you are correct, but that’s not new. This has been the case throughout history.
I was just thinking about the difference between “good,” and “excellent.”
If we look at the difference between a Henkels kitchen knife, and a Japanese Takayuki knife, we are talking exponentially divergent costs. The Takayuki is definitely a lot better than the Henkels, but is it twenty times as good, as the price difference might suggest?
But Henkels makes far better knives than most of the disposable crap out there. It costs more; usually two or three times as much as a “standard quality” knife. Worth it, though.
That’s sort of the “sweet spot” I aim for, and we don’t get there, without discipline, consistency, and patience.
Germany seems to be doing quite well in producing exactly those products from the upper-middle tier – mixing a reasonable blend of longevity, ingenuity and ergonomics, at an earthly cost. In the rest of the world and especially in "emerging markets" however, such products are often unaffordable, uncompetitive and even sometimes seen as old-fashioned. A household in India that goes from not having a kitchen cutlery set to having one cannot ever distinguish its level of quality because there is nothing else they can compare it to.
I was just thinking about the difference between “good,” and “excellent.”
If we look at the difference between a Henkels kitchen knife, and a Japanese Takayuki knife, we are talking exponentially divergent costs. The Takayuki is definitely a lot better than the Henkels, but is it twenty times as good, as the price difference might suggest?
But Henkels makes far better knives than most of the disposable crap out there. It costs more; usually two or three times as much as a “standard quality” knife. Worth it, though.
That’s sort of the “sweet spot” I aim for, and we don’t get there, without discipline, consistency, and patience.