Manufacturers - How Do You Answer This

Part of the problem is people only look at price,and then are shocked when whatever they buy falls apart.I am an electrical contractor.I usually would 1 to 2 new homes a year for a small contractor.In the beginning,he let me do what ever I want.I would use spec grade recepticles,good Nutone bath fan and lights,.I would put lights in all the bedrooms with fan rated boxes and run a 3 wire for seperate control,I would install more recepticles than required by code, etc. When I did the last house,he told me I had to cut back because all the customer looked at was the price.So we put in the cheap bath fan and lights,the cheap recepticles and only the amount required by code.One of the problems in that industry is the codes have changed over the last 10 years or so making it more expensive to wire a house.Arc fault recepticles are 10 times the cost on no arc fault.Tamper resistant gfi's are $4 more than non tamper proof.When all most people look at is the cost and when costs are driven up by regulations something has to give.The builder still builds a good house and I still do a good job of wiring,but the materials are cheaper to make up for the increased costs of new regulations.The bottom line is the builder has to make money or go out of business.I'm not making excuses for poor workmanship because that's unacceptable.But now maybe you can understand why businesses constantly look for ways to cut costs.It's economics.