This goes for ALL products such as games,household products and such. Are they over-priced? are producers 'Ripping Off' our hard-earned money? Is it because of inflation? post your opinions here and hopefully we can have a good debate about this.

Only in the UK it seems.

Bloody VAT.

not true really, in USA. You pay for an medical insurance, ok so it not a product technically but you NEED it in order to get seen for medical aid, so it kind of a subscription (yes subscriptions count as products too). Also you need other insurances.

Well, not to me. But I've usually had jobs that payed somewhat more than minimum wage. Can't really say anything til you're a regular working adult, can you?

valid point. Only when your really working then tax does happen.

Private hospitals are over-priced, and I think it's a combonation of the equipment and snobby doctors.

How?
Because we have to pay for even the smallest medical service without insurance, even if we needed it or we would have died.
Thing is, some people would rather die, bleeding in a ditch, than call an ambulance, myself being one of them. Having them cart me off, save my life, only to turn around and hand me a bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars I'll never be able to pay off isn't worth them hounding me for years to pay off the damn thing. That's also a part of my personal peeve, though.

Thanks, America. =D

I concur.
When I broke my arm I was carted off without said option.
not having insurance I get slapped with a 600 dollar bill... That economy train keeps on a chuggin.

Depends on the item. I personaly have never really had a medical emergency so I don;t know what it's like to be in a situation where you get saved, then smacked with a large bill, but some things are resonable prices, Like buying in bulk and warhouse food stores. Getting 10 pounds of cereal for 5 bucks is a nice deal. What I think is overpriced is college. The way it is, the better the college the more its gonna cost you. The point of college? To get a higher paying job. You have to pay 75,000-100,000 dollars for college, when the job you end up getting will only make you about 60,000 dollars a year! Add the fact that while IN college you need to pay for stuff, so you can;t have any money during thoese 4 long years of schooling. I don;t go to college, so correct me if I;m wrong. This is coming from what I have heard and I work with people who do and thats preaty much the story, from them and also my parents. With the unemployment rate in America....well, $60,000 a year is probably preaty accurate.

Products are not that overpriced... however, what you guys have been talking about, which I agree whole-heartidly, is that services are overpriced.

Plumber, hospital, painter, psychologist, etc. are overpriced.
Not to mention car repairs and such...

(Mine applies for US only, being as I haven't really looked at other nations economies.)

A lot of it is inflation (for the US at least), things are getting more expensive because in reality the value of the dollar is dropping, so in order to keep things profitable, they need to throw in higher costs on the consumers.

The reason it seems over-priced is because the amount of money the people earn is not going up as well. Look back at the time of the US depression, you could get things for far cheaper then because, for one, the economy went boom, and two people earned a lot less.

If you want things to start going back down in price or to get more money to get these higher priced things, either A: get a good job, or B: Fix the economy and put the US out of debt so that imports and things manufactured can be purchased for less money from the consumer.

Yeah, and some of the time it's not even worth it. XP

Products, could be cheaper sometimes too, though wouldn't you agree?

everything could be cheaper, especially services
and taxes..yes, lower taxes..Bush promises tax cuts, but really puts the economy back more, because he's putting the government in debt!
heres what i think of Bush:
:whack: :jen: :lamer: ..get the point?

FYI, the American government, if I'm not mistaken, has always been in debt. Though, yes, through the current actions, we are putting ourselves even more in debt, but we've always been doing that.

If you were to lower taxes, it'd only make things worse right now. The government needs money to continue all of its programs and to do that would cause some programs cut out, and we don't want that, Am-Track already lost government support.

Yeah, we always HAVE been, but this is..pathetic. What was once the greatest nation in the world is falling apart.
(And I LOVE Your Avatar..*drool*)

I love how everyone in this topic is an expert on economics.

And how America is declining. You're all so smart.

Jesus, I think I'm done being sarcastic for the rest of my life.

You insult me sir. :P

Eh, I know Britain is being ripped-off. We pay more for practically anything compared to the USA or Europe - Food, petrol, leisure items, services... Me, I blame VAT. But that's just me.

This topic has more bush bashing than a greenday concert.

so true, guys don't start a flaming on ANYONE, even bush. It's not his fault that the companies love to over-price thier products, also taxes are needed to fund the government anyway.

EVERYTHING is overpriced in New York. Even if the tag says the price is low, the 8% sales tax will kill it and cinsume your soul.