Why are things so expensive?

Okay now I'm very angry. Why is stuff always so expensive when it's not worth that much. Here are a few of my examples in my life.

Photoshop costs ~ $1,250.00. I need a photo editor for work, I save up and get it. It's a miserable little program that dosen't do half the things I need it to do, is hyped up to the extreme. I couldn't just simply return it. So I dished out and additonal $50 in plug-ins. I could have bought Corel Photo Paint for $65 that did everything I need it to do, and more features than Photoshop. How come a large company like Adobe charge $1,250.00 for a stupid little program and Corel cost $65 for a program with far more features?

Bottled water cost $2 in some stores! It's just water in a plasic bottle! The bottle costs 5 cents to form and the water inside costs 10 cents! Pure profit! Also all you Aquafina fans would love to know that their is just tap water from Lake Ontario. Ha ha ha ha...

3D Studio 4, I needed this for work too, it costs a good $3,000, I got it and in a few months 3D Studio 5 comes out! Same thing with AutoCAD 2004, pay a few thousand for it and the come out with AutoCAD 2005. All AutoCAD does is draw scale drawings! Why is it so expensive? I'm not getting my moneys worth. Thank goodness for them that I don't like internet pirating.

I remember in Highschool, the cafateria food was watered down (correction, "oiled down") and cost alot. They kept raising the prices on everything and the food was getting worse. The owner cut down on quality and rasied the price. He sold coke cans for $1.25 when a coke machine beside the cafateria sold them for $1. Basically, 90 cents of ingredients cost us $4.50 and was bad for us. He was exploiting us, badly. He even pushed to cut off all the other places we go to eat such as a nearby resturaunt so he gets 100 precent of the business. He charges for napkins! We got back at him though.

Computers, cost $600 for parts, and they sell them for $1200. Be more resonable like $800 or something. They are mass produced too.

I have alot more of these examples but I'm in a hurry. I write some more down later and post them.

Don't get me wrong that people need to make profit, but it gets to the point of disgust. Do you have any examples of not getting your money's worth on something.

Things cost what they do because there is a market that is willing to pay that amount for it. It has nothing to do with some sort of intrinsic value the item has, but rather the value that it has to the consumer, which they show by the amount they are willing to pay for it.

...but ya, the bottled water scam always caught me as humorous. Anyone recall the Y2K labeled water bottles? What evil marketing genius came up with that one and how the hell did it actually work?

Photoshop can do much, much more than PaintShop Pro trust me. I bought Paint Shop Pro 9 and then upgraded to Photoshop 7. My skills increased right then.

I completely agree with you GoldEagle; there's a lot of stuff out there where the profit margin is just outrageous. As far as my own personal stories go, just about everything that I didn't buy used was a ripoff (and even a lot of those were).

A friend of mine once put it into a decent perspective though. You aren't just paying for the materials, or even just the labor. You're paying for the tools used to produce whatever good or perform whatever service.

Think about it like this; you're obviously doing graphic work of somekind. Let's say you're a freelancer. Using the numbers above, you're doing your work on a $1200 computer, with Photoshop at $1250 and 3D Studio at $3000. That's $5450 for your starting capital, not counting rent or utilities involved. Say you expect 6 months down the line they're all obsolete, and you'll want to upgrade. You figure you'll be able to work 40 hours a week (lots of projects), which comes out to roughly 960 hours over that 6 months. That's roughly an extra $6 per hour you need to tack on to your development costs just to recoup your outlay on those.

On top of that, there's the recurring costs such as rent, utilities, office supplies if needed, other stuff--and this isn't counting personal stuff, just what you can count as a business expense. Let's figure a random cost of living sets your recurring costs altogether at about $1000 per month for this. So that's another $6000 in that time span you have to pay out, another $6.25 to tack onto your hourly wage. So now, before you even make a profit in any way, you're charging $12.25 per hour. This is without any employees to pay, no marketing costs, nothing. Just "raw" materials and base overhead

Did you go to school or get any special training for your pursuit? Well then you tack that onto the price as well, because that's the whole reason you racked up X grand in tuition expenses.

Whatever hourly rate you come up with right here is the absolute bare cost of working for one hour. What are your personal living expenses? You'll probably want to figure those out and then calculate your personal "salary." You tack that on next, because the work you do needs to profit you of course. From that point on, you still keep raising the price as much as the market allows because the company is supposed to be making a profit in its own right as well.

Granted, this probably isn't necessarily the best pricing plan around, and it doesn't deal with mass production in anyway. But the general principle remains the same; the $1.10 profit off that $2 bottle of water is probably being split 300 different ways.

Pardon the ramble; I got a little carried away. It doesn't make it better necessarily, I know, but I hope it at least makes a little sense.

Right now my family is making enough money to get by but too much money to get use the government subsidies available. By too much money I mean by like $1000 a year too much, about $80 a month too much. In Alberta where I live we pay Alberta Health care. The government will wave the bill if you make less than a certain amount. My family gets billed 88 dollars a month from Alberta health care. So either way I don't see that 80 bucks. With 2 kids, one still in diapers and only one person working $80 is a lot of cash.

Right now my wife works and I stay at home with the kids. Up until a year ago it was the other way around. We disagree with daycare for reasons I wont get into here. If we both worked one of our wages would end up going completely into child care. Again we would be making too much for subsides yet it would still not be affordable.

About a year ago when I lost my job and my wife started working we got behind in our energy bill, about $250. We got a notice from the energy company that if they didn't receive $200 immediately they would turn off the power.
So we scrambled and sent them $200 to keep the power on. The very next bill they charged an additional $200 as a new deposit on our account. Again knocking us back to being $250 behind in our energy bill, and yes a new notice that they would cut off the power to our house.
By the way, the CEO of the energy company made 1 million dollars that year

Also in Alberta there is a program called AISH (assured income for the severely handicapped) People on AISH were receiving $850/m up until the recent increase to $1000/m, the first increase in 10 years I believe.
Last summer I was reading about an elderly lady on AISH that had to beg for change in front of the safeway to make ends meet.

www.ffwdweekly.com...
Barbara Banman has MS and is in a wheelchair, but you’ll often find her panhandling at the Safeway on 8th Street S.W. because she doesn’t get enough money from social assistance to buy groceries for the entire month.

She recently owed several hundred dollars to Enmax, which was threatening to cut off her water and power. Banman says social services paid her utility bill, but her social assistance cheque will now be cut in half in order for the government to recoup the money, leaving her with absolutely no money for food and not enough to pay rent.

So now on top of all this you add GoldEagle's rant.

What do I think?

Systems are in place to keep the poor, poor and the rich, rich.

You guys have to pay for heath care in Alberta? That's how much of my own county I don't know about. That's just wrong how they do that. In Ontario, you can go to the doctor and it's free. You can go to the hospital in a private room and all you are charged with is the cable bill.

I totally agree with the statment "Systems are in place to keep the poor, poor and the rich, rich." you said. That was the smartest thing I've read all day. Umbrax, I hope all the best for you.

We saved so much money changing to Photo-Paint (this is a few years ago, Paint Shop Pro was called differently back then). I rather lose some features you say are there and save some $1,200. Also so many people have Photoshop and so many people have the right mind not decide one day to go to the store and pay $1,200, that's why I think so many people that claim to have it have pirated copies. Anyways, the point of this thread isn't to bash Photoshop but to use it as a reference to a point for my rant.

You pay for health care. Maybe not directly but you do pay for it.

We all get billed for health care, GoldEagle. Yours is very likely included in your benefits package at work. Anyone who makes more than around $26000 a year is not entitled to the subsidy.

In BC it's $54 per month. It used to be $38 but the prov. Liberals (who are the Conservatives, figure that one out) raised it by 50% when they were elected. Mine used to be covered by my employer, but at my new job we don't have benefits set up yet.

Of course, that's my fault. I'm the benefits administator, so I can only blame myself for the oversight....

Through taxes of course, but it's never up front, we hardly notice that we are paying for it. All other expenses are covered by the company that are outstanding. It's like we are paying for it, but it's not just for ourselves, it's like we are only paying for it when we need it. In Alberta they need a to pay health care I assume because they have no sales tax. Sales tax generates a tremendous amount of money for the province.

[edit on 7/28/2005 by GoldEagle]

No PST in Alberta just the GST.

I had a friend who moved here from Ontario. I would always hear his rants about Alberta Health Care .

Alberta Heath Care is more like paying insurance rather than paying full health care costs. AHC doesn't cover stuff like prescriptions and Ambulance rides. For that we need Alberta Blue Cross.

Soon those who can afford it, can get 'faster' health care. It's Ralph Klein's 'third' way health care.

I wish that guy would get another pie in the face.

Originally posted by GoldEagle
Why is stuff always so expensive when it's not worth that much.

Because alot of people are greedy for money.

I also believe there are people in certain powerful positions who are trying to orchestrate a financial collapse for a specific reason.

Greed is the main cause of these things. Companies are so super rich and there CEOs are richer. What they don't understand is that they are other much poorer people then them in the world.

Originally posted by dbrandt
I also believe there are people in certain powerful positions who are trying to orchestrate a financial collapse for a specific reason.

I can list a few companies that are on the verge of doing that. It's like a corprate suicide in order to make the elites in the company even more richer so they can retire, extremly rich, but at the cost of their employees and sub firms. Greed drives this world.

One of the things you have to keep in mind though is that before you dish out all that money for a certain product, you as the consumer, have the right and ability to research as much on that product before you purchase it...In most cases you can even demo it...

So complaining about "I should have bought x instead of y" isn't really a valid argument...

But, in general, I'd have to agree with you that the cost of just about everything these days can be quite ludicrous....

The fluctuation in prices for gas at stations that are 100 yards apart for example....or five states over for that matter.....

Price gouging....Coming out with a new product and maximizing on its demand, then five months later making those people look like fools by selling it at less than half of what you originally paid for it....

Sometimes there are ways to beat "the system"....Even if you have to look like the most unfashionable person around for a few more months while you wait for that new cell phone you want to drop in price....

Demoing computer products is not an option for me a few years ago with my 56k downloading a file that was almost a gigabite in size such as the demo for photoshop would have taken days. Also I was refering to what Photoshop was a few years ago not the current version, back then it sucked compared to Corel Photo-Paint.

Utilities should be paid by the government for lower income homes, utilities are grossly over priced. Electricity and water are not a luxury, they are a necessity.

Download ' zbrush.com '. You won't get the whole program, but you can mess with it forever. They give you a new password every month if you want. I have Photshop 6 and about 12 other nutty programs and can do anything on the planet with them. I also get updates so you don't need new stuff. How many filters can a guy use in one lifetime ?

Demoing computer products is not an option for me a few years ago with my 56k downloading a file that was almost a gigabite in size such as the demo for photoshop would have taken days. Also I was refering to what Photoshop was a few years ago not the current version, back then it sucked compared to Corel Photo-Paint.

Old post, so my reply is also obsolete.. most of my replies to these older posts are to display things which from people can learn certain things, even if the post itself would otherwise be too old to reply to.

First of all, there is no such thing as a "gigabite". You must mean a GigaByte (GB).

Second of all, 2002 version of Photoshop does not take a GigaByte, let alone a demo version of it (if such even exists).

Third of all, a faster modem in 2002 would have cost you much less than your alleged price for the Photoshop.

Fourth of all, it's completely lawful to copy information and programs, it's not piracy, it's not stealing. Sharing is caring, and copying is lawful. Information belongs to all for free! There is no such thing as "intellectual property"! Either something is physically your property, or it isn't. You can't OWN something you spread around the world as copies. You can own the CD that contains the Photoshop, but you can't own the bits that form a copy of it. This is just the result of brainwashing and people not knowing the difference between LEGAL and LAWFUL.

People accept that copying is piracy all of the sudden, when it has nothing to do with such awful activity. Piracy is something the "powers that be" did a long time ago, with their voodoo rituals and such. Pirates used the same Skulls&Crossbones symbol in their flags as the Nazi SS troops used on their caps, and the "Skulls&Crossbones" 'society' (or whatever it is) uses - the club that most presidents and a lot of celebrities and so-called "leaders" belong to. It's a masonic death cult symbol, that TPTB want to normalize, and "piracy" is terminology that they want to be able to use of everyone.

How anyone could even equate copying something with stealing is beyond me. If I see you have a nice Ferrari, and while you are sleeping, make a perfect copy of it - have you lost your Ferrari? No. You are not even aware of what I am doing. Yet you might manufacture 10000 Ferraris, and claim that because people make copies of them, not -enough- people are buying them from you, so they are stealing. When in fact, the people who make copies of the Ferraris might not even be able to afford to buy them, so it's a moot point, and no loss for anyone in any case, or they wouldn't buy it in any case anyway, in which case there's also no loss. Copy or no copy, I wouldn't buy your Ferrari. And you still have your Ferrari, I have not taken anything away from you. Have I really stolen something? No.

It's like a food recipe. If someone pays for a lesson on how to make a banana cake, and then gives you the recipe, and you make your own banana cake, have you stolen someone else's banana cake? No. You might not take the lesson where you get the recipe, because you already copied the recipe from your friend (a natural human function is to share information, it's the very basis of all our communication!), but is that really stealing from the cook who sells the lessons? No!

So stop calling copying "pirating" or "piracy", and stop thinking there's something morally wrong (there isn't) about it, or unlawful (there isn't) about it. The only thing is if you have performed a joinder - and thus consented to being governed by the legal system (and all it's acts and statutes, which they create out of thin air every year, and no one can know them all), then it CAN be "illegal".

But it can never be unlawful. And those who have not consented to being governed by acts and statutes, do not have to obey the legal system whatsoever. Only the LAW.

Learn the difference, learn to think, see what they are trying to do, and you should really be free from suffering from high software prices.

reply to post by jetsetter


I took a photoshop course in college and once I explored it thoroughly, I too thought it was very limited. So, I guess it depends on the extent of your imagination and artistic ability in deciding whether or not that type of software is worth that kind of money. In my opinion, it certainly is not worth it.