Compounding inflation over 30 years is much greater than the cost saving measures implemented by the consumer goods companies (supply chain optimization, improvement of packaging techniques etc.).
Interesting, this is psychological misinterpretation. People have a tendency to think that price = quality. There was similar scenario presented in the book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion that had to do with a jewelry owner.
True. To clarify, I don't think it's safe to completely write off the fact that they could be doing something illegal (I'm not saying they are, but see this book of their alleged illegal practices in the 90s: http://amzn.to/5bbFuA). The reason why the Dove bar wins over the cheap generic brand is because of marketing, which stems from their financial advantage over smaller competitors. Likewise, their financial advantage is the result of increased sales from marketing campaigns (recall the Old Spice commercials). It's a vicious cycle.
Thanks for the great insight. The consumer product industry only has a few players (P&G, Unilever, Kimberly-Clark, Johnson & Johnson) which essentially gives them leverage to control prices and keep other competitors away through marketing.
The effects of marketing are very subtle, as your experience clearly demonstrates that.
People don't start worrying until something actually happens. The general public is deluded when it comes to internet security, and Lulzsec exposed the internet's vulnerability. Yes, they did break the law, but they had the right intentions nonetheless.
It's pretty embarrassing that none of these big corporations (PBS, Sony) can't even take some time to test for security flaws considering that SQL injection like you mentioned is easy to test for.
I empathize with you. It took my team hours just to figure out a name for our company. In fact, I think naming is one of the most challenging parts for startups.