The profiteers have struck Squeezebox Touch $750

While The Economist may be a UK publication, it does (IMO) lean left.

Regarding an 88 yo getting meds costing $200/day, you are correct, not a chance that Obamacare (or Medicare for that matter) will not cover that!

We don't have a red or blue problem in the country, it is the color grey of an aging population and that's where the problem lies. Most, if not all, politicians know this but none will tackle it as the unfunded liability of Medicare make the 16 Trillion we have already racked up look like peanuts. Both parties are to blame for this and the longer we wait to address it, the worse the medicine will be when we are forced to take it.

Just my 2 cents..........now back to what is a real / correct / fair market price for a Touch!

I don't know anything about what the Squeezebox Touch does, what competitors it has and what the going price for the Touch or any competitor was before this new price.

That said, if the current price is ridiculously high, someone else will make a similar product and undercut these sellers on price. If the price is not ridiculously high, be happy that you bought your bargain when you did - you made out like a bandit.

As an aside, Vicdamone said:

I live near refineries and in the home town of Chevron yet I pay more for gasoline than people pay thousands of miles away.

Gasoline prices are influenced by a number of factors other than transportation costs from refinery to gas station, such as different costs of crude (depending on where it comes from), state gasoline taxes and costs of refining to different environmental standards. If Vic lives near the Chevron refinery in El Segundo, California, the gas he buys would be subject to all three factors.

Nwavesailer- Sorry if I was unclear. Medicare Part D (which is optional) only covers a very small part of the my Dad's medication expense; after about a month he goes into the "donut hole" and none of it is covered until he pays thousands out of pocket and then once he's out of the hole, it's covered (but again for only a percentage). It cost him thousands of dollars a year for this one medication alone.

Thanks for the clarification, Swampwalker!

Edorr said: There is a big difference between taking advantage of people in need of indispensable basic commodities in times of crisis, and selling a piece of electronics at market prices.

spot on!

i love free markets and strongly believe in them. i don't think they work 100% of the time. healthcare is a great example. until we figure this out (like most of the free industrialized world has), we're gonna go broke as a country (while the healthcare industry continues to makes a killing).

when people have no choice in buying something (like getting medical attention when sick), the "free markets" provide a license to gouge and/or kill. you can be fore or against this.....but don't kid yourself as to what's really going on.

healthcare is in fact the single biggest root cause of our "budgetary/spending problems in the US". 5-10% annual increases in costs can not be sustained long term by any country regardless of wealth. this fact has been clubbing us in the head for decades but we still try to avoid it. go ahead and debate the solution(s). the problem itself is obvious and irrefutable.