[Harp-L] Cheap harps and American mentality. Warning: politically sensitive.

[martin oldsberg <martinoldsberg@xxxxxxxxx>]

Maybe this tread is over-worked but I find it very captivating. Partly because I simply have to know about the low price ranges of harmonicas. It´s that or quit the game entirely. (Re-learn my approach to the instrument in order to make them last? Well I´m 56 now and the shadows are lengthening across the lawn, so I´m not sure I´ve got the time ...)

Let me ventilate a prejudice on Americans and prices, generally. (I apologize in advance, take it in the best of manners, please.) 

  When I lived in the US I was surprised quite a number of times that "most expensive" and "best" were perceived as synonymous concepts. Once I asked the guy I was working for what he was drinking and he held up a can of some junk named Coors. 

  "The most expensive beer in the world." (By that he meant the US, he had some educational shortcomings in the "world" department. Coors at that time probably was the most expensive beer in the US.)
  "Aha, I said, "is it also the best?" He looked at me as if I was some sort of alien (which I was ...)
  "Of course," and then he proceeded to say something on the line that "most expensive" and "best" shared the same denotational area. (He used other words.)

This was then repeated in other instances, and all in all, with some typically European preconceived notions on "Americans", it contributed to the formation of a prejudice of mine (I share it with a few others): "Americans equate expensiveness with quality." And "most expensive" was often a sort of sales point. I´m not quite sure I´ve seen that over here.

  My experience with (some -- but not few) Huang harps is that they are both cheap -- and good. A dream combo. Perhaps if the Huang family had raised their prices with a 100% they would still be around?
  

Now I apologize again, prejudices are nothing to be proud of, and I´ll crawl back back under my Swedish rock so quickly you can´t even say "Thorstein Veblen".

Cheers,
Martin