Indeed, we spend more than anyone else but also get less for our money than anyone else. It would likely be an underestimate to say that our gear and labor costs double that of any of our competition.
People don't ever ignore corporate America's actual price gouging. I think they are sometimes conditioned to see price gouging where there is none. Domestic costs are very high, and foreign costs are low (perhaps even suspiciously low; our competition is willing to operate at a loss to put us out of business). Don't get me wrong, it would be awesome if there was some obvious price gouging at work that could be cut to solve all our problems. But it is usually just market forces that drive prices high.