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Comment by rustynails | Hacker News Reader

A while back, the Australian dollar was about US 60c. I would suggest this was the basis for which software was pegged against. When the exchange rate changed, the priced stayed fixed because it maintained status quo for the locals. Over time, it became the norm for others to follow suit. It's actually quite simple: if you think it's too expensive or loaded pricing, don't buy it.

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I live at university accommodation in Australia which houses a large proportion of international exchange students. Every one of them, from France, the UK, Canada, Sweden, the US etc. has been shocked by the prices here. Some of them have even said that if they had known how expensive it was, they wouldn't have come.

(This is in general, not just software.)

I'm in Australia from the UK and yes, the prices can be ridiculously high. I have my own version of the McDonald's index, the bread index. In supermarkets in the UK quality organic whole meal fresh bake is £1.10 which is about $1.80 AU. A loaf of white junk bread in Australia costs over $4.00. And so it is with lots of things.

So many rent seekers.

This is demonstrably false.

I agree that cost of living in Australia is high, but you can buy a loaf of "baked in store" white or wholemeal bread for AUD $2. Sure its not organic but it is fresh.

In the American south where cost of living is known to be low, I can get store brand white bread for $0.99 (~$1.06 AUD). I can get fancy pants processed bread that is brown with lots of labels like "NATURAL" for $3.00. Store-fresh bread is $2 - $4 at grocery stores.

I can't imagine junk white costing $4. That's outrageous, but then again, maybe it's like that in some American regions with a crazy cost of living.

My sister migrated to regional Australia and it's hella expensive.

Bananas in Arizona are $0.57/lb and they were $12/k when I lived there. Apparently there was a banana shortage at the time but the usual price was still 4-5x what I would normally pay.

Clothing is also very expensive. Every time my sister comes back to the states she brings two gigantic duffel bags and stocks up on clothing.

The prices on anything else you want/need to buy like electronics, computers, cars, or bicycles are insane compared to the USA. Or even Japan, which isn't a country known for bargain prices.

I do think there is a bit of frontier pricing happening. Everything seemed cheaper in Melbourne than her town.

That said, she gets paid $95K for a part time job with full benefits. She had a similar job in the states that was full time and it paid $34,000 with minimal benefits.

It actually depends, I used to live in the melbourne suburb as a grad student, I used to pay 800$/mo for 1 bedroom apartment. Now I am living in the US (in northern VA, DC area) I pay 1200$/mo for the same standard of accommodation. In fact, the melbourne accommodation was better, w.r.t. the condition of the apartment and the degree of accessibility to the public amenities. The suburb where I am living now (in the NVA/DC) is literally a ghost town, where the melbourne suburb was very alive.

"That said, she gets paid $95K for a part time job with full benefits. She had a similar job in the states that was full time and it paid $34,000 with minimal benefits."

And there you have it.

If you want to live in a society with high pay, good benefits, free Medicare, compulsory pension contributed to by your employer, etc -- then be prepared to pay.

Also, there is nothing stopping you from importing cheap clothing, goods, books, whatever from overseas.

Not everyone in Australia has the ability to earn $95K. There are the rare exceptions where you can get an unskilled mining job in a remote area, but that's every bogan's dream. Actually landing such a job is another matter.

That said, the minimum wage at $16.37/hr is much hire than other countries. In Melbourne at least, you'd probably gobble that up pretty quickly on living expenses.

The US is a little special, as it's got a strong agricultural industry (like Australia), and subsidises food like crazy (like the EU). While Australia has some of the most efficient food production in the world, it has very low subsidies. The US has both efficient food production, and crazy subsidies, so food is dirt cheap. Plus, Australia has fairly high minimum wages, so eating out is quite expensive.

Conversely, I've heard from people who lived in America that the food is terrible. Bread that last a week or two before going stale, etc.

Junk white isn't $4. Mass-produced 'artisan' bread is.

It may suit your political narrative to claim that junk white bread costs over $4 a loaf but the facts are markedly different. http://www.news.com.au/business/first-it-was-milk-now-grocer...

Please don't shoot from the hip when you are so ill informed.

Actually I'm staying in a Victorian country town called Castlemaine where there are two supermarkets under the IGA franchise. There are no Coles or other supermarket competitors here that provide the venue for a 'supermarket war' as its described. I can assure you that the prices I quote are accurate. I'm also fairly confident that the shelf price for ordinary refined flour white bread would drop significantly if there were competitors.

Cheaper options are available in a regional city called Bendigo some 35km away, and I've no doubt that there are even greater discounts available in larger cities.

And there's the rub. Lack of meaningful competition in many sectors in Australia leads to a kind of price rorting, as I believe it's called by the Australian consumer and competition agency.

I have no political axe to grind. I'm merely on the one hand pointing out a price differential observable to any visiting european, and on the other indicating what seems to be an effect of limited competition.

Australian prices generally have increased greatly relative to the English pound in my experience. The reasons for that aren't that difficult to understand, and ordinary supply demand leads to large regional variations I'm sure.

Australian politics are not my politics, though I presume they're yours. I hope I haven't stumbled into some local political schism.

It would have been relevant to mention in your original post that you are living in the country, unlike >70% of Australians who live in a major city.

Only for the grocer's own brand (e.g. Woolies' Homebrand). All others are $4+.

http://www2.woolworthsonline.com.au/Shop/Department/1%3Fname...

Sorry, I can't follow suite. Could you explain the thing with the political narrative again? Who has which political views?

To be fair you can get the cheap supermarket brand for about $1.10.

I would agree though that you can be looking at around $4 for something decent.

It's my unfamiliarity with city prices I've discovered. I apologise for my lack of knowledge there. Still, the regional price I see in the large country town I'm in is in a way the exception that demonstrates this observation. I cannot but surmise that a rent is being charged.

Here here. I'm from Ireland (with our own Paddy Tax) , and was surprised at the high price of things in Australia. I think Switzerland and Norway are more expensive but that could be all.

I suppose the local salaries tend to compensate that (as, for example, in Norway) ? How much a SW developer makes, on average ?

Not even that. Even games on Steam are routinely priced at retail and left there for years. Civ V, for example, was still $70 last time I checked.

And no, I didn't buy it :)

Update: Just checked - Released 24 Sep 2010, $69.99

http://www.steamprices.com/ is a good place to see what's what and find the most outrageous examples.

Anno2070 DLC has a 700% markup in Australia.

This is probably a result of owners forgetting to update prices in 2nd class regions (= everything that's not US or UK).

The solution to it is price tiering as opposed to being able to price whatever in whatever country.

Except that Steam forces Australians to buy software in US dollars. We can't buy through the US Store. We go into an 'australian steam store' where they rip us off, and we have to pay in USD.

And suddenly, the whole "don't pirate, feed the poor hardworking people" story doesn't seem so believable, is it?

Not all developers/publishers charge higher prices. You can see here: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/149928

what if you have a need, and that need can only be filled by a product with a loaded price... you don't really have the option to "not buy it"...

Or continue to import it for half the price. Yay, status quo.

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