K_1269: Where were you staying during your travels? Some bluecollar neighborhood or some nice area in a big city or a tourist location? What kind of place in the US were you comparing the prices to? Something like Manhattan, NY, or some regular midwestern town, etc.?

I'm asking these questions, because I know that it's very easy to overpay for the same things when you are in a foreign country on vacation, as a tourist usually doesn't know his/her way around like the locals do. For example, where I live, there are two restaurants about a block apart, one sells a steak dinner for 7 Euros, the other for closer to 20 Euros, guess which one you won't find tourist in and which one you very likely will. So, while prices might appear much more expensive, locals won't nessesary be paying that much more on many goods because they know where to go. The locals that you will find at the expensive places are usually those that do make more money then the majority.

That being said, I do not know how the prices for goods are in the UK right now, for all I know prices generally could differ that much between the UK and the US. However, I highly doubt that they really do differ that much ( not saying they won't differ a bit though) for the majority of goods when comparing similar regions with one another while leaving tourist drawing places out of the equation. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong though ;)

monkeydelarge: From my experience, the farther away from the city center, the better the prices.

K_1269: Man you're fast, was just editing my post, to mention that regions differ. But yeah, that's pretty much one of the points I'm trying to make ;)

StingingVelvet: Yes if you convert currency a euro is like 1.5 dollars, or whatever. I get that. However if euros are treated the same as dollars in euro countries, the social/economic systems are the same, i.e. a steak dinner is 20 in both, a movie ticket is 8 in both, a CD album is 10 in both, etc... then games being 60 in both makes sense.

timppu: Only in the sense that "well, since you are used to having to pay more for everything else, why not for this then?". That's assuming that Europeons are unable to put 2 and 2 together, and see when they are simply overcharged with higher margins.

No one likes to be overcharged for no proper reason.

HypersomniacLive: Isn't that contradictory? Doesn't overcharged mean that one is asked to pay more than they should? What proper reason could there be to make it acceptable?

HypersomniacLive: Isn't that contradictory? Doesn't overcharged mean that one is asked to pay more than they should? What proper reason could there be to make it acceptable?

wpegg: I suppose the obvious question from that is "how much should they be paying".

timppu: Yeah, you can remove "over" from the word if you want to, or changed it to "charged extra for no proper reason".

Anyways...

HypersomniacLive: I think you've answered your own question already.

monkeydelarge: snip

wpegg: No, you've answered my question with my answer. Personally I don't agree.

Brasas: Social animals are still animals. Communal instincts are still instincts. A life not worth living is still a life. And who defines its worth if not yourself?

I have no issue with pursuing happiness. So don't think I disagree with you that we should look for love, community, solidarity. I agree - we should. I disagree with saying these are or should be rights. For both practical and ethical reasons.

I have to give it to Sting though, when he opens one of these threads the "paradoxes" he ponders on cut right into the heart of contemporary political ideology. For the relative or absolute value of objects is the core issue about economics, and from there into redistributive politics.

Who defines what's valuable if not yourself?