In both physical & digital copies of video games: when I’ve visited an store, upon looking at the price tag (they range at 90 AUD or more for a copy, seriously?!) I’ve also browsed through their Steam store front which isn’t any better, 110-30 AUD for a digital license?! When you consider regional pricing, they end up costing more than USD (depends, like a +20% increase which is insane to me). To put it into perspective, games are cheaper in my country than they are in Australia.
Because while both countries use the “dollar,” it is not the same currency and cannot be compared directly.
Australians also tend to make more, and thus have a higher cost of living. If an Australian is making less than the equivalent American, someone or something failed somewhere and that person is not going to have a good time. If an American is making more than the equivalent Australian, that person is probably enjoying life.
It’s why pushes for minimum wage are so poorly thought out. Okay, you double everyone’s wage, it means the companies that pay them pay twice as much, so they will raise costs to compensate. They’re not going to take a pay cut. With everything going up, those who get paid more have roughly the same spending power (so nothing has really changed for them) but those who didn’t get paid more have it worse — and that’s the point.