Where has quality gone?

I sat on the phone today with Whirlpool, scheduling a service appointment for my oven-yes, this is the oven that is not even 3 months old, and already we are having problems with it. It seems it has decided to add about 75 degrees to every cooking temperature you set it on which equals burnt food! I can hardly believe after all we went through with the last oven that we are having trouble again with this one. It makes me sit back and wonder, where has the quality gone in products nowadays? It seems like everything is made to be disposable, throw-away, and have a short shelf life. Why is that? Back when I was growing up, you only got rid of your appliances if they were a) over 20 years old or b)they were so hideous and outdated, you had to. They may not have been pretty, but they lasted! I think I remember seeing the appliance repairman at our house maybe once when I was growing up. Now we've got one at our house at least twice a year. To give you an idea, in our last 2 houses, over the past 7 years, we have replaced a dishwasher that was 4 years old, a stove that was 1 year old, a microwave that was 1.5 years old, and a washer that was 3 years old. These are all ones that just died or broke and could not be repaired for less than the cost of a new one. This is also not counting the numerous repairs on the remaining appliances that we have had to pay for(probably at least 10). How about if I told you I was on my 4th hand mixer in just 6 months! No, I'm not kidding. And I'm not rough on them either-I use them for the same things anyone else would. I really think these big companies need to hire real families (like us!) to test their products for them to see if they really do live up to what they say they will do. But if they did that, it would just prove how cruddy their products really are, I guess. The funny thing is, we had a great repairman back in Oklahoma who came to our house several times to fix things and would always tell us how high quality the replacement parts were for products, while the original ones were just junk. Geez, I guess they not only get your money when you buy, but also when you inevitably have to repair. I would love if I could find a reliable brand that still made good quality items. If any of you readers know of some, please share! This is obviously a source of continual frustration for our family. Well, for now, I'm looking forward to Monday when the repairman can hopefully give my "new" oven an overhaul and make it behave again!