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Why are computers so expensive in Brazil? A Big Mac is also relatively expensive. Is it just an expensive country in general?

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Largely because of taxes. Brazilian taxes are extremely high. http://www.quantocustaobrasil.com.br/site/downloads/impostos... This table is in Portuguese but it's easy to understand. The second column means the tax percentage of certain product / service. It's published by the union of Ministry of Finance's workers.

Those are not for imports. In the case of computers, since we do not produce them, the taxes are much higher. Pretty much all eletronics cost between 2 to 3x as much as they would in the US.

Yes. If we want to buy an Amazon Kindle that will cost exactly 2x times the original price. It is the most expensive Kindle in the world (the second is India, with around 1.3x the original price). It is ridiculous.

Factor in the average income of a Brazilian family and you'll wonder how on Earth electronic gadgets get sold here at all.

Yesterday I was walking in front of an operator store (Vivo) and saw the first Samsung Galaxy (i7500) for sale. Unfortunately I had one i7500 a few years ago. The price: 899 BRL (around 578 dollars).

Taxes are so high, yet we have little to no infrastructure. It's a shame, I really with I was born somewhere else.

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