[grey_whiskers]

Many of those who are "the haves" today have done neither: they have augmented their wealth by throwing other people overboard, sacrificing quality, and pocketing some of the difference

Only in the mind of a true class warrior. Cheers. Dell and HP come to mind (called their tech support lately?)

As does Wal-Mart: try reading up on Snapper.

Note that this does not apply to (say) automobiles, since Japanese cars gained market share due to reliability and fuel economy issues, in addition to price differential.

I presume you have no quarrel with the other contentions, since you did not reply to them.

Cheers!

[groanup]

So because you have trouble with Dell and HP tech support and Wal Mart has power to push prices down then capitalism must be a bad idea. Wow.