The $250 already includes the profit margin in the US, so that can't be counted again in our price (at least not in direct comparison). Import tax here for electronic devices is around 5% (I can't find exactly where something like a console would be listed on the Australian customs site, perhaps someone who is educated in the matter can point me towards to correct pdf). Admitively there will be some extra overheads on the import, but that would only add a few dollars tops to each system. I'm assuimg however, they are imported into the states so the cost would add onto that. We also need to remember that the import tax is on the inital (manufacturing) COST of the console, which is much lower than the price even before tax.
We also need to remember that the AU$400 includes tax, whereas the US$250 doesn't, so we need to compare AU$360 to US$250. At the moment that comes out to about US$282. Now the difference doesn't look so big.
Still, I agree that we are getting shafted on the prices (especially for games) but the difference isn't as clear cut as comparing it advertised dollar to dollar.
