Most people (but not all) in the Western world are in enormous personal debt. They prefer to spend 25% less on something that is disposable cheap garbage, because the sticker price is lower.

Due to economies of scale, this means that higher quality items have much lower demand and would have to be sold at enormous prices to justify their existence. The prices of quality items then skyrocket. The rest of people who are actually financially responsible and would prefer to buy a quality product end up rationalizing that the "good quality" product, if it exists, is so expensive it's better to buy the disposable item, and buy another when it breaks.

It is the same thing, most people will flock to an airline fair that's $50 less, not caring that there's another $50 fee if you want to check a suitcase. Other airlines have to follow suit or lose customers, whether they like it or not.

Here in Ontario, the government finally did something about those car dealership 'admin fees'. Instead of dealers advertising lower and lower prices, and charging higher and higher admin fees, they are now required to advertise the full price including everything except tax and registration.

Sad. Very said. But also an accurate reflection of our society.

Perhaps what we need to do is require manufacturers to include the price of a 2 year repair/replace warranty, including 2-way shipping, in the prices of all of their up-front prices. This would probably cause a difference in manufacturer behaviour, since they would either have to build in a lot of price for warranty / shipping costs, or just make a better quality product in the first place!