VAT.....
and I hear the US is thinking about going to a Value Added Tax too now that the "make your kids pay for it" party is running things
Yup, that'd be part of the problem here... it's called GST (Good & Services Tax) and we pay 10% extra on everything except basic food items, meaning most things we buy went up in price. However, it's not just the 10% GST that's the killer, on it's own we could probably manage that. No, what makes it even more unpalatable is that when the Howard Government introduced the GST, all goods and services providers were essentially made tax collectors, and as a result prices were driven up even further so that companies could 'so-say' could cover their increased accounting costs.
Worse still, manufacturers/producers then began putting lesser quantities into products but still charging the same price... sometimes more because of so-called poduction cost increases. For example, most breweries reduced some bottled beers from 375mls to 330mls... food companies are doing the same, as are hardware manufacturers by cutting corners with lighter weighted steel/plastics, etc.
However, a much larger part of the PC/parts rip off situation here is excessive profiteering... particularly here in Queensland. I searched high and low on the net for the cheapest possible prices for my upgrade components, and all the best prices were in other states (namely NSW and Victoria), which was of no help to me by the time I paid interstate S&H. Most PC/component retailers here in QLD charge anything up to 20% - 25% more than their interstate counterparts, sometime more... and it's not because they are paying more (I am reliably informed they use the same sources), but rather that they view us as a captive market with fewer options so charge more simply because they can... and can get away with it. Excessive profiteering is why we pay more, pure and simple, and the worst offenders are the large companies who buy in bulk for much less but still charge more at the checkout than many smaller stores with limited bulk buying ablities.
I eventually found a reasonably priced local internet service with over-the-counter sales also, so by the time I had deducted what I would have paid for S&H it worked out not too much different price-wise in the end.... and I had my parts that day, took half an hour to go pick 'em up/bring 'em home.
Oh, and another thing! I could understand higher prices when the OZ dollar had fallen sharply against the greenback back in Dec 08/Jan, Feb 09, but the AUD firmed against the USD in recent months and has been trading at over 70c in the US dollar for some time, yet that saving is not being passed on to consumers. And it's not a case of 'old stock', either. My AMD Phenom II 920 was manufactured on 5 April 09, well after the AUD had risen against the USD, yet I paid the higher "January/February" price because the supplier had not adjusted its wholesale price to reflect this, meaning the store could not sell it to me for what should have been be the going price at the time, being that was less than what it actually paid.
And people wonder why I hate Capitalism in its purest form... it seeks to screw us. 
