Not everything needs to follow some moralistic purity test either. Just sell the damn thing at the market clearing price and let other people wring their hands about fairness of the pricing for these luxury pens. Most people do not need to redeem themselves or assess their self-worth via the pricing of luxury goods.
You're aware that they set a price that they're comfortable with, yes? They chose not to set a market clearing price. It's not about a "purity" test. It's what they choose to do.
It's amazing how uncomfortable people get if there are examples of people not wringing every last ounce of profit out of something.
Please read the post that I was responding to, which insisted on framing everything in terms of some weird definition of luxury-price morality. It's strange how much of a raw nerve is touched when you point out the absurdity of people's various moral crusades.
In terms of why the actual vendor is or is not raising prices, I have no idea, neither is it important. I was making a counter argument, not lobbying the vendor. They could charge a million dollars or one dollar for their handcrafted pens and there would be zero moral difference between these two prices.
Besides, who gets to decide what a “fair wage” for your work is? If people are willing to pay more for your pens, I say charging them what they’re willing to pay is still pretty fair of you.
