Theater goers and sports fans are killing us!

Theater ticket prices go up another couple of bucks... but, Gee! You've gotta see the new Harry Potter movie!

Tickets to the ball game are $50! But, Wow! You may not even have another chance to buy tickets to see the team this season!

So the grocer says, "If they'll pay $12 to see a movie, they sure can pay $4 for a gallon of milk!"

The plumber says, "If they can pay $50 to see a ball game, they sure can pay me $100 to come fix their leak."

There was a time when prices were determined by cost to provide the goods or services purchased, plus a reasonable profit for the effort. No longer. The rule today is, What will the market bear?

Fair, honest. reasonable are no longer the language of enterprise. Today we pull a price out of the air. If people pay it, we raise it a little. If they will not pay it, we have a sale, lowering the price temporarily. If they pay the sale price, we take another shot at charging the full price. If they now pay the full price, we again raise it a little.

Every time you smile and agree to pay "a little bit more" for something, you are signaling to someone that raising prices is okay. Only when people begin to walk away from a ticket booth saying they will not pay that much; only when people stop buying something, anything because of price, will someone sit down and seriously search for ways to offer the goods or service for less.