History Main / YouGetWhatYouPayFor

[[folder:Real Life]]
* TruthInTelevision. Computers/cell phones are designed to last only 3 or so years, or less if they can blame stuff on damage.
** Especially obvious in case of the CMOS batteries in computers, which cause the computer to not boot when they run empty (often after three to five years). On desktop computers, one can usually swap the battery for a new one (same type as in a quartz watch), in notebooks, the CMOS battery often is soldered under the - equally soldered - CMOS chip and therefore cannot be replaced.
** To be fair, computer technology progresses so quickly that even an expensive computer will be rather out-of-date after 3-4 years.
** Also, companies that build products to last ~30 years might not last that long, because of a low turnover rate.
** As true as this is for products, it is ''especially'' true for services. House cleaners, cooks... cheaper is more expensive.
** A standard reply from Apple fans when haters complain about Apple's prices. Of course, the intended complaint is that you ''aren't'' getting what you pay for...
** Averted with a lot of Open Source Software projects that also happen to be free, which more often than not consist of SugarWiki/GeniusProgramming.
** Averted with Android apps, which have a lot of free apps. Most of the paid Android apps have lower reviews just for being paid apps, outside of some popular games like ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}''.
* Large long-term expenses like cars can also fall under this. A used, cheap, run-down car that requires frequent trips to the auto-repair shop can easily cost more in the long-run than a more expensive but reliable new car. This could be mitigated to a certain extent if you are into cars and can perform fixes yourself, but unless you're keeping a car for its classic/antique value, after several years it becomes more costly to maintain and buy the parts needed to keep it running than to just go buy a new one.
* Namco's American chain of arcades (Aladdin's Castle, Time Out, Cybertainment, etc.) all get their machines from Namco's home office in Illinois, which always tries to get cheap, broken-down used games and then try to fix them up. With special emphasis on "try", because it usually doesn't work, and they frequently end up spending more money failing to fix a game than it would've cost to buy a brand-new machine. They've driven many of their own arcades out of business this way.
* A bit of [[GallowsHumor military wisdom:]] Always remember that your gear was produced by the lowest bidder.
* Attempting to avoid paying for disc-based media ([=DVDs=], [=CDs=], etc.) by borrowing them from the library often results in getting a scratched-up copy that won't play properly.
* This trope should ''[[RuleOfThree always, always, always]]'' be kept in mind when planning ''any'' type of elective surgery. Top-notch, board-certified surgeons are going to be expensive, there's no doubt about that, but your body is what's on the line. Better to pay $10,000 for reasonably good results than to pay $5,000 for risky MeatgrinderSurgery.
* An old tale (that can be changed to be about any technical job) tells about an inverted instance of this trope. One day, a critical component at a major factory jams, shutting the a large part of the factory down. Executives are panicking, and ask the lead engineer to try to fix it. Luckily, he realizes that he doesn't know how, and brings in a paid professional to come in and see if he can repair it. The professional comes in, and gets his tools out. But first, he looks at the machine from every angle, for about ten minutes. He then takes out his hammer, and hits one spot on the machine, and it fires back up. The executives are overjoyed, until they see the fee of ''$10,000''. They're enraged, and ask why they should pay that if all he did was tap on one spot with a hammer. The professional then (bemusedly) writes an invoice. "Hitting spot with a hammer"? That was worth $5. The other $9,995 was because he knew ''where to hit it'' with the hammer.
** Lawyers have the same joke, only in that case the problem was solved with writing a letter.
* This is a major reason why people living in poverty have such a hard time escaping it. People in poverty have to buy cheap, low-quality goods and services which don't last as long as more expensive ones or they have problems with them. They can't afford to upgrade, and they snowball into something bigger and often much more expensive, such as not being able to get a minor vehicle issue fixed; this then results in it breaking down completely and costing much more to fix.
* More than one business has gotten into trouble or gone bankrupt after the higher-ups decided that their more experienced and competent employees were "overpaid" and then laid them off in favor of less experienced and competent workers for cheaper wages.
* This is the reason MadeInCountryX is even a trope; some countries (China in particular) are known for mass-producing crap versions of things and selling them for cheap.
* Demonstrated on both sides during some of Italy's colonial adventures:
** Part of the reason for the embarrassing Italian defeat at Adowa is that the Italian colonial troops weren't armed with the new Carcano Mod. 91 rifles but with the older Vetterli-Vitali Mod. [=1870/87=], the idea being to "use up" the older gun's black powder ammunitions against an enemy the higher-ups deemed harmless, completely forgetting the Carcano and its small smokeless powder round had been designed ''exactly for colonial use'', as the 6.5mm rounds, being smaller and lighter, could be carried in greater numbers by the troops during an expedition: during the battle the Italian troops, outnumbered by far, would fight valiantly and bring the Ethiopians to the brink of collapse when they exhausted their ammunitions and were overwhelmed.
*** {{Subverted|Trope}} on the other side: the elite Ethiopian troops hadn't paid for their ''state-of-the-art'' rifles, as their emperor Menelik had bought them at credit ''from the Italians'',[[note]]the whole reason for the war was that the Italians had helped Menelik to win a civil war in exchange for an alliance treaty, only to scam him and turn Ethiopia into a protectorate. Preparing for his counterattack, Menelik noted that the treaty gave him the ability to buy weapons and ammunition from Italy at credit, and after being stopped from acquiring modern weapons from Italy's rivals he used that to buy the modern Carcano rifles[[/note]] and after winning the war he used that to not pay.
** After defeating the Ottoman Empire in 1912 and forcing it out of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan, that the Italians called with the collective name of UsefulNotes/{{Libya}}, the Italians decided that if the Ottomans had controlled those provinces with a couple regiments so they could too, forgetting that not only the Ottomans were Muslims like the locals, it had taken them centuries and taking advantage of the UsefulNotes/BarbaryCoastWars ''crushing'' the locals to establish that kind of control. By late 1914 the Senussi tribe in Fezzan realized just how ''few'' Italians were actually there and forced them out of their province, aiming to take over all three provinces.
** In 1915 the Italians finally reacted to the Senussi revolt and sent an expeditionary force led by colonel Antonio Miani (who had subjugated Fezzan before being recalled to Italy for political reasons just as the Senussi started their revolt)... But not only, as it was the eve of Italy's entry in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, the commander in chief Luigi Cadorna had recalled home most national troops and all airplanes, the Ministry of the Colonies decided to employ locally-raised troops, who had been told they wouldn't fight away from their homes to get them to join, and tribal irregulars rather than the Eritrean ''Ascari'' requested by Miani, as getting the latter would have cost more. When the expeditionary force engaged the Senussi main force the irregulars turned on the Italians, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere prompting the colonial militia to leave the field]] and leaving the few national troops and ''Ascari'' there to get decimated. This, helped by Miani's blunder of carrying too many reserve weapons and ammunition, led to the Senussi to force the Italians back to the coast using their own captured weapons.
** In 1922 UsefulNotes/FascistItaly launched the ''Rinconquista della Libia'' ("Reconquest of Libya", counting the Roman one as the first conquest)-and this time they brought large numbers of national troops and ''Ascari'', recon and bomber planes, armored cars, and tankettes. Tripolitania and Fezzan were quickly reconquered, and when the mountain regions of Cyrenaica proved harder they ''sealed the entire border with barbed wire'' to keep them from crossing into other powers' colonies and regroup there and deported large parts of the population into camps to keep them from supporting the guerilla. By 1932 the Libyans were so completely conquered than when the British invaded during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII they didn't get any support, as the locals didn't dare to oppose Italy's overwhelming power.
** In 1935 Italy tried once again to conquer Ethiopia... And, still remembering the defeat of Adowa, mobilized overwhelming numbers of troops (most of them nationals rather than colonials) plus support personnel, reaching an amount of almost ''one million men'' between troops and noncombatants, equipped with abundant rifles, machine guns, artillery, tanks and other vehicles, and planes, and constantly supplied from Italy with everything they could need, including chemical weapons. After some initial troubles, the Italians conquered Ethiopia, though the brutal policies imposed by Mussolini failed to break the population as they had done in Libya.
[[/folder]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'', during the Brain Tumbler experiment Raz will tell Sasha about seeing "very weird things". Sasha exclaims "Ack! Why did I have to buy the CHEAP Brain Tumbler?". Turns out cheapness has nothing to do with it...

* [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Sam Vimes]] comments on this trope with his Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness in ''Literature/MenAtArms''. Poor people are continuously forced to replace their crappy boots, while rich people can afford to buy a long-lasting pair, and at the end of ten years, the poor people will have spent more than the value of the nice pair of boots in terrible footwear.

* [[Literature/Discworld Sam Vimes]] comments on this trope with his Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness in ''Literature/MenAtArms''. Poor people are continuously forced to replace their crappy boots, while rich people can afford to buy a long-lasting pair, and at the end of ten years, the poor people will have spent more than the value of the nice pair of boots in terrible footwear.

** After defeating the Ottoman Empire in 1912 and forcing it out of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan, that the Italians called with the collective name of UsefulNotes/Libya, the Italians decided that if the Ottomans had controlled those provinces with a couple regiments so they could too, forgetting that not only the Ottomans were Muslims like the locals, it had taken them centuries and taking advantage of the UsefulNotes/BarbaryCoastWars ''crushing'' the locals to establish that kind of control. By late 1914 the Senussi tribe in Fezzan realized just how ''few'' Italians were actually there and forced them out of their province, aiming to take over all three provinces.

* ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'': A SleazyPolitician is using Mike's Pythagorean persona to attract voters, using out-of-work actors instead of the ''actual'' "real-life superheroes". [[https://somethingpositive.net/sp04302012.shtml Except he couldn't even be bothered to pay the guy enough to get an actual copy of the costume]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''
** In an episode spoofing the story of Moses, Lisa and Milhouse escape a badly designed DeathTrap, a room with moving walls covered in spikes where the spikes line up to the opposing walls, causing them to stop the whole trap. Lisa notes, "Slave labor. You get what you paid for."

*** {{Subverted}} on the other side: the elite Ethiopian troops hadn't paid for their ''state-of-the-art'' rifles, as their emperor Menelik had bought them at credit ''from the Italians'',[[note]]the whole reason for the war was that the Italians had helped Menelik to win a civil war in exchange for an alliance treaty, only to scam him and turn Ethiopia into a protectorate. Preparing for his counterattack, Menelik noted that the treaty gave him the ability to buy weapons and ammunition from Italy at credit, and after being stopped from acquiring modern weapons from Italy's rivals he used that to buy the modern Carcano rifles[[/note]] and after winning the war he used that to not pay.

** After defeating the Ottoman Empire in 1912 and forcing it out of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica and Fezzan, that the Italians lumped together as UsefulNotes/Libya, the Italians decided that if the Ottomans had controlled those provinces with a couple regiments so they could too, forgetting that not only the Ottomans were Muslims like the locals, it had taken them centuries and taking advantage of the UsefulNotes/BarbaryCoastWars ''crushing'' the locals to establish that kind of control. By late 1914 the Senussi tribe in Fezzan realized just how ''few'' Italians were actually there and forced them out of their province, aiming to take over all three provinces.

* Part of the reason for the embarrassing Italian defeat at Adowa is that the Italian colonial troops weren't armed with the new Carcano Mod. 91 rifles but with the older Vetterli-Vitali Mod. [=1870/87=], the idea being to "use up" the older gun's black powder ammunitions against an enemy the higher-ups deemed harmless, completely forgetting the Carcano and its small smokeless powder round had been designed ''exactly for colonial use'', as the 6.5mm rounds, being smaller and lighter, could be carried in greater numbers by the troops during an expedition: during the battle the Italian troops, outnumbered by far, would fight valiantly and bring the Ethiopians to the brink of collapse when they exhausted their ammunitions and were overwhelmed.
** {{Subverted}} on the other side: the elite Ethiopian troops hadn't paid for their ''state-of-the-art'' rifles, as their emperor Menelik had bought them at credit ''from the Italians'',[[note]]the whole reason for the war was that the Italians had helped Menelik to win a civil war in exchange for an alliance treaty, only to scam him and turn Ethiopia into a protectorate. Preparing for his counterattack, Menelik noted that the treaty gave him the ability to buy weapons and ammunition from Italy at credit, and after being stopped from acquiring modern weapons from Italy's rivals he used that to buy the modern Carcano rifles[[/note]] and after winning the war he used that to not pay.

* The "Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socio-economic unfairness", as outlined in the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/MenAtArms''[[note]]composed after noting that his rich girlfriend lives in luxury but spends much less money than he does[[/note]]:

* In one Webcomic/ImNotYourFriend strip, this is [[SubvertedTrope subverted]]. [[http://imnotyourfriend.thecomicseries.com/comics/224/ Rachel buys an overpriced piece of cardboard that promptly crumbles to dust.]]

* ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'': A SleazyPolitician is using Mike's Pythagorean persona to attract voters, using out-of-work actors instead of the ''actual'' "real-life superheroes". [[https://somethingpositive.net/sp04302012.shtml Except he couldn't even be bothered to pay the guy enough to get an actual copy of the costume]], instead getting his theater costume dry-cleaned.

-->'''Actor:''' And I told ''you'' that for ten bucks all I could afford is dry-cleaning my show costume.

[[folder:Film]]

* The "Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socio-economic unfairness", as outlined in the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/MenAtArms''[[note]]composed after noting that his rich girlfriend lives in luxory but spends much less money than he does[[/note]]:

* This pops up now and again in ''WebComic/SchlockMercenary''; Trying to cheap out doesn't always pay off in a violent universe.

-->'''Officer:''' Spend some money and hire '''help'''.\\