It's all about aesthetics-- frankly most people can't tell the difference between quality and consumer grade products. Moreover, they really don't care because they've been conditioned not to care. Art appreciation is no longer taught in school, neither is music appreciation. In a society where functional literacy is the considered the achievable "gold standard" of public eduction can anyone really be surprised at the vast number of adults out there who, after leaving school, never read a book, go to a play, or listen to music when not behind the wheel of their three-year old pickup truck they are itching to trade in for a new one? This vast, voting populace are the same people who can't tell the difference between a Rab Gordon sgian dubh and one fresh off the boat from Shanghai. They can tell the difference between new and old, or cheap and expensive, but they can't tell you why one is "better" than the other. Because, frankly, they don't know. They are like Mrs. Joyboy looking for a spoon. Wood or silver, it doesn't matter; she wants to eat her ice cream, and if she can't find a spoon, she'll use her fingers.

"They can", as Oscar Wilde said, "tell you the price of everything and the value of nothing."