On Thu, 8 Dec 2016 06:43:59 -0000 (UTC), Leon Schneider
wrote:

wrote on Thu, 08 Dec 2016 00:27:15 -0500:

"you only get what you pay for - and then only if you are lucky"
pretty well defines today's market place.

Actually, I disagree completely that "you get what you pay for", since
again, that's saying that quality and price are locked in step, and they're
just not.

READ for Crypes sakes!!!! I said you ONLY get what you pay for -

Here, in California, it's a million bucks for a 2000 sq foot POS house.
In Texas, that house would be 50K or less.

The quality is the same.
The price is very different.

As is the location - which has a lot to do with VALUE. It is VALUE
that you are looking for - not quality.
Value is the quality/price ratio.
If you want to live in Taft or any of a hundred or more hell-holes in
California you can buy your house for less than you can build it for
too. The HOUSE quality may be the same, but the neighbourhood sure
isn't. There's a REASON people won't pay as much for the house in Taft
, or any of the other little california outposts as they will in the
valley, or the bay area.

You really get what OTHER PEOPLE PAY FOR, in that the way economics 101
works is that the price of something is based on what other (idiots mostly)
are willing to pay for.

The VALUE of something is also sometimes described as what the
highest bidder is willing to pay for something at any given time and
place.

So, for example, at Safeway, the lettuce is 2 dollars a head consistently
whereas at Trader Joes, it's 1 dollar a head for the same quality lettuce.

How the hell can Safeway charge double?
The answer is that OTHER PEOPLE are buying that lettuce.

If Trader Joe was out of lettuce, I'd be stuck paying what OTHER PEOPLE pay
for if I wanted or needed a head of lettuce.

Trader Joe's cost of inventory and handling are MUCH lower than the
supermarket.. The "level of service" is also different. For some
people that changes the "value" of shopping at Trader Joes vs the
supermarket.

The quality would be the same in both cases.

Generally speeking we overpay for junk - because it costs the same to
warehouse and inventory junk as it does quality goods. The price we
pay for goods includes the cost of the goods (which varies with
quality, to some extent) plus the cost of warehousing, inventory, and
handling - which is the same for junk as for jewels.

I agree with you that manufacturing is only part of the total cost of an
object. In some cases, manufacturing is almost nothing, and where storage
is the biggest expense.

Take o-rings for example. How much do they really cost? How much do they
sell for in the auto-parts store? The expense is not in manufacturing since
they make tens of thousands at a time. The expense is in everything else,
as you noted.

Even in the case of tires, look at the expense in California:
Tire itself = about 100 bucks
Sales tax = about ten percent of that
Eco fees = about five or six bucks
Shipping from Tire Rack = about 16 bucks each (UPS ground)
Installation & balancing = about 20 bucks each
Disposal fee = about 3 bucks each
California tax on the disposal fee = about a quarter but do they have to
tax everything?
etc.
You want to buy tires in Ontario (Canada, not California)