Price discrimination
njl: You seem to feel some sort of moral obligation to price things as cost-plus.  "This good cost me $90, 10% profit is reasonable, you can have it for $100."You're upset by pricing based on value. "This good cost me $90, but it's going to save you $500 this year alone, so it is a steal at $250."I guess my argument to you is that the goal is (naturally) to squeeze more cash out of customers. But the customers with more money are presumably getting more value out of the product.For my current venture, we're selling software that helps keep students from dropping out of college. Our effects are measured in additional revenue to the school from students retained. Assuming we manage to provide the same percentage improvement to every school, the value we provide to an institution is going to vary widely. A small community college might have a third of the revenue per student as a private institution, and a small school might have a tenth as many students as a larger institution. My incremental costs aren't really all that much greater from school to school, but the value to the schools vary widely. It only makes sense to provide them different prices.