[robocat]

Businesses charge their customers as much as they can. Businesses want to raise prices almost regardless of what their input costs are.

It is wrong to believe that a product's "correct" price is simply its cost plus a reasonable markup.

There's other factors that might limit how much a business can charge their customers. But an ideal business acts more like a monopoly and charges far far more than is 'fair'.

In theory competition keeps prices in check: in practice competition doesn't work as advertised.

[sshine]

> Businesses charge their customers as much as they can

That's very imprecise.

There are multiple optima on the price/demand elasticity curve.

At the two ends: Few expensive items and many inexpensive items, Hetzner has consistently operated at low margins and massive volume.

Which means they charge customers as little as they can to get as many customers as possible.

You'll see that evident on any price comparison chart prior to these adjustments.

They're probably still cheaper than everyone else in spite of 3x'ing the price of some products.

[robocat]

Your overall point is true - but I'm unsure whether you are clarifying or trying to ackshualise.

And well actually, "price/demand elasticity curve" appears to be ambiguous word-salad (although a human mistake;)

I do appreciate your response: it makes me think about what I should have written. You are correct that my comment was rather unclear. Most of us misunderstand how businesses maximize profits. I find economics hard.

[sshine]

Yes, I just wanted to clarify that "businesses maximize profit", they don't necessarily maximize the unit price.

Thanks for squinting and finding sense in how I said it. It's been 12 years since I took an econ course.