This is something every country has (no matter where, all have a form of VAT and sales tax) but a majority of nations include VAT within the price of the product whilst in the US that’s calculated upon checkout (so technically you are not paying $789 for a steam deck since you add tax, so that amount alone isn’t final).
So in reality, it’s closer to $820 or a game that’s $80 ends up to $95 but are either purchases possible whilst earning $15 per hour? Take the PS5: it’s ¥97,980 inc. 10% CT ($603) while the same is $650 but closer to $680 or more when you add SALES TAX, you can buy the same console in Japan since taxes are included.
In Pennsylvania the sales tax is 6%. A PlayStation 5 disc version off amazon new is $559.99, after tax it would cost $593.59. Minimum wage is $7.25/hour. A person making minimum wage would need to work 81.8 hours to pay for a PS5(disc). Forgot to include a game example Wolverine is listed on Amazon for $69.99 after tax it would cost $74.19. At minimum wage it’d take 10.23 hours to pay for it.
81.8 hours is assuming they are not paying income tax… factoring that in, im sure it is over 100 hours. Someone smarter than me can do the math…