• @laranis@lemmy.zip
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    3115 hours ago

    There was another thread recently about what happened in your life that made you no longer feel like a child. I think for me one of those things was realizing that the price of things has very little to do at all with the cost of creating that thing.

    • @Overshoot2648@lemm.ee
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      912 hours ago

      This is actually the reason why taxes don’t increase luxury item costs as the cost is set to the market demand rather than from supply. In fact, the benefits from taxes help people afford more products in a virtuous cycle. It’s also the reason tariffs or taxes on raw goods are so bad as you actually are creating dead weight loss and driving down demand which can be useful or detrimental depending on why someone needs that product.

    • @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      1614 hours ago

      Price = Cost of Materials + (Middle Man + Middle Man + Middle Man + Middle Man + Middle Man + Middle Man) + Cost of Labor.

      It’s Econ 101

      • @drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        7 hours ago

        Nah, the cost of labor + materials + distribution is the minimum price of an item. The actual price in practice will be that price + whatever the manufacturer can get away with charging.

        What determines the premium they can get away with is whether or not alternative goods exist and whether or not the consumers are informed of them, motivated to seek them out, and capable of making the switch.