The free market tendends to either refine a product/service via competition, thus improving it, or undermine it, thus subverting it.
The difference between these two usually comes down to price.
When businesses compete to improve a product orservice, their prices may rise along with the value of their offering. We can all agree that this is a fair and natural consequence for the benefits of improved quality. But when businesses compete by undercutting each others prices, the value of their offering–their product or service–will inevitably fall too. Very few offer true, honest quality at bottom-feeder prices.
Still, there are surprisingly many people who delude themselves by thinking that this contradition of value-to-price is not real and that one can get both quality and low price if one searches or begs with enough passion.
As a real estate marketing specialist in Toronto, I get the occassional call from a new client insisting that I price-match my real estate photography or virtual tours services to that of some kid advertising on craigslist who is willing to do the same for 1/3 the cost. In this case, rather than lecturing on the inverse relationship between price and quality, I kindly ask them if they’d be willing to sell my property for 1/3 their usual rates. After a short nervous/guilty laugh, the response is generally no. Those with some sense of decency will respect the comparison I offered and ask me to elaborate on why my services are in fact better; those without will say that it’s not a fair comparison and that all I’m really only offering is a better camera than they have.
To some I suggest they don’t bother hiring a professional and instead rent a “better camera” from Vistek so they can do the shoot themselves. It’s just the camera after all, right?
To others I reiterate the proverb that sums up the contradition nicely: Buy cheap, But twice.