Quote:
Originally Posted by LCF
This argument is completely wrong. It's not about stop buying the product, it's about changing the supplier.
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...except that by some standards, all the suppliers of those goods are "ripping you off." The companies in these industries charge highly comparable prices for their goods, and can often have very high profit margins.
If you pay $1.00 for a soda, 85¢ of that is profit. So do you actively research goods and services to detect exorbitant profit margins? Or do you just look at a price, say "I don't wanna pay that much," take your services elsewhere, and retroactively apply a moral judgment on the presumption that the costs for each good and service should be identical across the board, and that every company has an ethical obligation to offer the lowest possible price?
Or perhaps the definition of "rip off" only apply when a sector offers variability in pricing?
And none of this alters the fact that local taxes often play a large role in international price differentials. That's a major reason why gas in Europe is so much more expensive than in the US (lower gas taxes) or Peru (which subsidizes fuel purchases). Similarly the UK levies a 17.5% VAT on ebooks, which is included in the price; the US does not, and if a smaller sales tax does apply, it's often excluded from the price until the purchase is nearly complete. That's a 10-17.5% premium right there.