GU demands a price increase on the entire house

That may seem strange to you in the public service or civil service, but the margin is essential for a private sector company for continued existence. And thus also for the economic existence of the employees and the subcontractors.

We, in the private sector, have to earn our money in the free market, not through taxes, fines, and pointless fees ;)

Ehm okayyyy. I am also in the private sector and happen to work in the construction industry but ok :(

No, that is simply wrong across the board. If the general contractor (GU) is, for example, a corporation, the GU can even be criminally liable if it does not use all possibilities to achieve the profit that would have been (legally) achievable. Investors can sue against this... and they will do so...

You accuse the user of generalizing, but you yourself generalize all the time.

I also see a very American understanding of business here. Increasing profit in the short term without regard for customers and employees. After a few years, the reputation is ruined and you can only compete on price. A company certainly also has room for maneuver, even one that is listed on the stock exchange. A good reputation is also an asset.

You accuse the user of generalizing, but you yourself generalize all the time.

Especially nowadays, in almost every business, it is no longer sufficient to simply maximize one's profit and let the flood come after me. Fair trade, sustainability, good reputation, word-of-mouth advertising - these are also important marketing tools in the construction business. And as we see in this forum, great care is taken not to jeopardize these. It is the only topic where every post is reviewed before publication.

A company definitely has some leeway here, even one that is publicly traded. A good reputation is also an asset.

Especially since in pretty much every business nowadays it is no longer enough to just maximize profit and let the chips fall where they may. Fairtrade, sustainability, good reputation, word-of-mouth - these are also important marketing tools in the construction business.

When the good reputation is ruined, mergers happen and an agency is hired to come up with a hip, clean name for the new company. Then programmers are hired for a few baht or rupees who boost entire shiploads of likes into the network via bots. The fact that some "customer" reviews *ROTFL* resemble the writing style of the Nigeria Connection is no coincidence. Consumers reliably trust a "five-star gold status self-invented loyalty (stupid) seal" - at least if the Pied Piper Inc. also acquires the matching "shell company founded ages ago." Since the majority of share"holders" are actually more like sharehoppers, effects in five years do not matter: five years are twenty quarters (= an unimaginable long term for day traders). This "system" can best be "infiltrated" by practicing "buy local" (preferably from owner-operated companies). By the way, propaganda with only one "mouth" - "Mund_zu_Mund" is ventilation in first aid ;-)

I would also like to address our general contractor (GU) again. Warning, just (m)y example and therefore quite general: but after signing the contract in August 2021 and starting construction in January 2022, we did not pay a single cent more, the shell was built with an accuracy of 1 cm so that the windows could be ordered in February, and our biggest annoyance so far is that the plasterers botched a window key. Consequence of this: a well-known couple has already signed the contract there, another is currently in the offer phase. I do not want to say that we are the coolest or smartest. We were also lucky with our gut feeling and the fact that our GU is not after profit maximization but rather his reputation.