Which is against the law, but it's ok to say "Oh, you're a senior citizen, have a 50% discount off our normal price"

Discounting is usually a market segment grab, or to move no longer wanted stock, or to boost exposure/attendance to stores where full price products might catch your eye while you there getting that half price stylus.

For seniors, it's still essentially the same thing - recognising a reduced income segment of society and giving up some of your profit to benefit from the added sales - the profit is still there in some form. I'll concede there is a possible an element of social conscious pandering, but I suspect this might just be a happy side effect. Though I know plenty of seniors who are actually the 'wealth' of the family - so I'm not so sure they should be considered as poorly as they are when it comes to spending capacity.

Regardless, it unfortunately doesn't apply in this situation... unless the entire US is considering itself a senior citizen compared to the rest of the world?

Nah, sorry, it's still exorbitant discrimination and gouging.

doesn't that prove the Apple representative right and it is really about the film and music industry?

btw. Australians get one of the best deals worldwide for the iPad mini. http://www.techhunter.co.uk/reviews-exclusives/apple-ipad-mini-global-price-comparison/02481/

Thing is, the price gouging doesn't stop with MS, Apple, Adobe or Corel... nor with digital downloads/software.  Australians have always paid more for hardware, and while this is with all hardware, it is considerably so with regard to CPU's, RAM and graphics/sound cards.

Now various excuses are used to try and justify this, but none of them are legitimate and none wash with me.  The cost of shipping is blamed for Australians paying more than Americans, but the majority of PC hardware entering Australia comes from Asia, which when compared to the US, is right at our back door.  In other words, it cost more to ship to Australia, a much shorter distance, than it does to the USA.  BOLLOCKS!!!!

Another excuse is the exchange rate and how prices are determined by the US dollar.  Again, that is crap!!!!  The US dollar should not even be a consideration when Asian owned companies [Gigabyte, Asus, etc] are dealing with Australian companies.  Furthermore, the Australian dollar has been above parity with the US dollar for a couple of years now, so if prices are determined by the USD and the exchange rate, why the fuck have prices not come down? I was just looking at some US prices for motherboards in connection with a conversation I've been having with RedneckDude and was flabbergasted at how low the prices were... between $35 and $75 USD for items that range from $95 to $189 AUD... for the exact same fucking items.

The other thing blamed for high prices for PC parts is the Australian taxation system and duties imposed.  Yes, the Australian government imposes higher taxes on these items than US or European governments, but even so, this does not account for 60% to 100% mark up on US or European prices.  Fact is, there's greedy bastards price gouging Australians... and they get away with it because lower priced alternative products simply aren't available.  In other words, the ***** have us by the short n curlies

For mine, they'd have their nuts cut out and be fed 'sweetbread' until they choked on it.

How can you make 50% extra GP1 without any additional cost?

Sell to Australia.

I thought when you use a credit card to buy something the conversion cost is passed on to the user, not the company that sells the item.  Also some credit cards do not change a conversion fee and Paypal doesn't or at least it use to not.

I left this one alone last night because I was a little more than angry... I was entirely pissed off, and I would have used language that would have seen me taking an enforced time out.

As for drugs costing anything up to 500% more here in Australia, well I asked my member of parliament a few questions about it, and I was told that the major reason is that US drug companies use the same excuses as MS, Apple and Adobe, etc... the cost of shipping, the exchange rate and other regional factors. 

Again, the exchange rate excuse is pure bullshit, given the AUD is buying $106 USD.  The cost of shipping is also bullshit. There's a drug factory just 30 minutes from my address that makes numerous drugs under license from the US.  And what fucking regional factors? Drugs made under license here in Australia are shipped to places like Papua New Guinea and Indonesia and sold at prices up to 400% less than we can buy them in the country of manufacture.

My member of parliament also told me that US drug companies are behind many medicines being taken off the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, a government subsidised scheme to make drugs affordable to pensioners and low income families.  According to him, the US drug companies have been placing undue pressure on the government to remove subsidies on a whole range of medicines, though threatened price increases and denial of service, etc.

Tramadol is one of those drugs that has been taken off the PBS and at 69 bucks a packet [x3 per month] I simply can't afford it, not even the generic version, because that too has been removed from the list. My doctor is looking into affordable alternatives, but to date there aren't too many affordable options that I feel safe in taking due to side effects and addiction, etc.  I am thus having to deal with levels of pain I needn't be experiencing... all thanks to greed.

  I work in logistics here in North America.  We ship goods to Japan and I can shed some light on why shipping costs may be more expensive to some regions over others.

North America is by and large the largest receiver of containers from Asia.  Container ships which come to Port here (Vancouver, BC) are always full.  In contrast, container ships that head back to Asia are somewhat empty.  It basically means that it is extremely cheap to ship a container from here to Japan because it is better to get some money (and a full container) then to just take an empty back to be refilled.

I am willing to bet that Australia doesn't get 'full' container ships.  And the containers that do get shipped are probably not full either.  So a lot of empty volume has to be made up in costs that are passed on to the consumer.  By the way, Asia is not 'right next door' to Australia.  It is 7500km from Tokyo to Vancouver.  It is 7800 km from Tokyo to Sydney...8000 to Melbourne.  Even southern Asia is shipping a fair distance.  5500km from Bali, Indonesia to Sydney.

On another note, after the Republicans destroyed the American economy, the Canadian dollar was worth more then the US dollar.  Basically from around 1.35 US to around 90 cents US.  But goods such as books were still sold at the 'sticker' price on the back which was by and large 40% more then the US cost.   As a Canadian, the price to me was no different under Clinton then it was under Bush, and my wages were only higher, but the manufacturer who was selling it to Canada was seeing a big difference.   But since the US is right next door, I could drive over the border, buy my goods, and drive back in an afternoon....and many Canadians live near the border.

So I am not sure if there is a solution, other then buying the goods from North America, and having them shipped to your house by Fed Ex.

How much?... cos I'd love to take your money.

Not long ago I lived right beside the sea lane into Brisbane, and honestly, most container ships I saw were fully laden/low in the water.  Given how much of our manufacturing has been exported overseas, and that the majority of consumer goods these days are made in Asia, the vast majority of goods on Australian shop shelves are imports... from Asia.  Apart from some locally produced food. Australia is dependent on imports for just about everything from electricals; furniture; clothing; automotive; tools; foodstuffs to books and entertainment goods.  In other words, practically everything.

Now why do I believe that?

Maybe for the same reason there's no bidding allowed to drive the prices down for Medicare Part D.

Change the Election laws to allow NO direct contributions and total disclosure of all contributions and watch how prices drop.

"The only way to change the behaviour of these vendors, as they admit themselves, is to take money away from them. If this day of evidence reinforced anything, it was that the only language these companies understand is the almighty buck."

- http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/australia/it-pricing-inquiry-result-australians-are-fools/1751?tag=nl.e076&s_cid=e076&ttag=e076

You should read that article.

The unmitigated gall of these rapacious, arrogant lizards. Europe was right to hand MS its ass. Australia needs to partner to do the same as quickly and effectively as possible. Crush them and gut them. After all, it's what these bastards have been doing to you for years. 

Count me as someone cheering you on.

this!

the company i work for serves a market of about 100 million people. still that market is too small to order full containers of some goods. so we have to buy these goods from wholesale importers in Rotterdam that serve all of Europe.

this is actually the only complaint i can take serious.

price control for luxury items like games or music? that's decadent and i don't think even the Soviets did go that far.

on those drug prices, i think the approach of the Indian government is best. if a pharma company asks so much for a drug that even the middle class can not afford it, they just override their patents and let local companies produce generics. as a result a dose of Tramadol costs nine rupees in India. smuggling Tramadol from India is not advisable, it's basically a weaker version of Heroin, so punishment might be severe.

so you guys need some Indian pharma company to build a factory in Australia.

...or we could improve our lot with a Union Carbide factory....

Whether or not there's price-gouging for some bullshit Super Mario brothers is irrelevant.  Most [if not all] businesses require IT ...you know....computers and such...and they need proper OS software [not backyarders with script-kiddie prop hats]...and it's the manufacturers of THOSE that are being taken to task....not how much C and C costs....

That is illegal. One cannot simply steal others' IP.

That is probably often true, but it's also often true that games are cheaper in the UK last I saw anyone do a comparison.

http://steamreview.org/posts/localisedprices/

So blame whatever you like, but from everything I've read Steam isn't at fault here.

Anyway, back on topic, I think what we can take away from all this is if politicians actually did their jobs gouging wouldn't happen.  Good luck to you Oz peoples.