PC vs amiga pricing in the 80s and 90's. Were PC owners getting screwed?

[Iggy]

Consider the cost of the components. Both the 8088 and the 6502 were less than $5.
Yes, both PC and Apple buyers were getting screwed royally.

[Iggy]

And they wanted to keepp the image of them being powerful business systems.  If it costs more its better, right ?
 
Bettamax was a better format than VHS, but because it was also cheaper than VHS people assumed it was not as good.

SuperBetamax was really cool. I used to use the sound (w/o picture) inputs to record HD audio.

[Iggy]

i think PC stuff was always cheaper for you guys fishy_fiz. perhaps thats why amigas were never as big in the states as in europe. I remember looking through multi format magazines and shops, and the prices of pc's made my eyes bleed  I'll find some prices in my old ace magazines tommorow (from '88 till '93 i think), you guys stateside can tell me how they compare.

Isn't that still the case? European prices still always seem to be higher than in the US. Then there's VAT adding to the cost.

[Iggy]

VAT is tax.

Unlike European nations the US has no national sales taxes like a VAT.
And a few States like my own don't have a State sales tax.
And, as was pointed out earlier, by buying from a company outside your home State you can avoid sales taxes entirely.

Of course we in the US know that a VAT is a tax, we've just been lucky enough to keep our federal government from trying to enact such a tax.