Some excellent and thought-provoking thinking on this thread and the parallel "Invincibility" thread....should be merged really.
I finally found a quote which has been going round in my head for a while.....not sure if it's been on Prune before, apologies of it has. But I think it's relevant.
“There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man’s lawful prey. It is unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money — that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot — it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”
John Ruskin, English critic, essayist, & reformer (1819 – 1900)
My very best wishes to all Pruners and their families for a happy and blessed Christmas and safe skies for 2011.
Sherm