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this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2026
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Memory is high because there is nothing preventing them from charging anything they want above and beyond the cost of manufacture.
Yes, that would be true if they had a true monopoly.
However, in an open market when a producer offers their goods for higher than the market rate, another producer can steal their business by simply offering the products at market rate. If Samsung decides to try to price gouge then customers can buy RAM from Micron, the only time that this isn't possible is if there is more demand than their is supply (i.e. Micron has no stock) in which case, microeconomics tells us that the market price will increase.
How naive to think they all wont do the same thing when their only goal is profit.
Now you're suggesting a price fixing conspiracy among the two largest RAM producers, that's quite a big claim so you surely have pretty solid evidence to support that position.
Being cynical isn't evidence and calling people names isn't evidence.
they are well known for doing just that. two of them are briefly explained here
No I'm not. I suggesting a for modern for profit compnay will raise prices as high as they can. You know this you are just trolling. good bye.
Ok, so who is arguing against that? Certainly not me.
Yes, every company on Earth would charge you $182737854 billion dollars for their product if they could and ever seller on earth would like to buy the product for $0. The market price is the price that both of these two opposing positions agree is fair.
You said:
It is a requirement of every successful manufacturing business that has ever existed has to charge a price that is above the cost of manufacture. The term for this in academia is profit. If a company does not charge a price above and beyond the cost of manufacture then they're selling the product for less than it costs to make it and, unless they're Tesla, then they will eventually go out of business.
I can admit that maybe I did misread you because I assumed that you were trying to make some deeper point, because what you said, if read literally, is that "Memory is high because companies seek profit" which is the most trivially true thing you can say about economics.
So, back to basic economics.
The thing that is preventing a company from charging 'anything they want' is the fact that there are other manufacturers (because there isn't a true monopoly in the RAM market) that are competing in the same market. Nothing is preventing Samnsung from charging $150,000 for a 1GB stick of RAM, but if Micron is selling their 1GB sticks of RAM for $150 then nobody will buy from Samsung.
This a phenomena known as competition prevents Samsung from being able to sell RAM for arbitrary prices. The market sets the price, not any individual company.
I assumed you knew something so basic.
The only way a manufacturer can arbitrarily change the market price is if they are the only manufacturer, aka a monopoly (in which case the $150,000 sticks of RAM are the only ones available on the market) or they are price fixing (and Micron has secretly agreed to sell RAM at $150,000 and no other manufacturers exist).
So if you're not alleging price fixing then your comment is basically 'Companies seek to maximize profit' which is like saying the sky is blue or the sun is hot.