Almost no prices are set based on cost to produce. When you shop for eggs, do you care if the producer’s costs were higher or lower than normal? Essentially all prices are based on the value people receive from the good.
That is a new development and the massive shift away from cost plus pricing to value based pricing is a big part of the financial squeeze of the lower and middle classes.
Simultaneously, from all sides sellers are now constantly testing the elasticity of consumer budgets to maximize profit until they exclude the bottom x%, it's a huge financial strain for the poorest among us.
Cost plus was never a pricing model differentiated goods. Human psychology just doesn’t work that way; nobody says “having a nice reliable car is worth $20k to me, but I’ll pay $30k because their cost to produce is high”.
That’s kind of the whole point of the capitalist / consumerist model: first movers take high risks with investment and can reap outsized returns if successful, while success breeds competition from new entrants who have a proven market and a product to copy. The expansion of the market means more price competition, driving prices and returns down.
I’m not saying it always works like that, just that it generally does.
