That Looks Expensive is a subreddit (r/ThatLooksExpensive) that deals in damage to things that quite likely made someone’s wallet wallow in pain.

The subreddit currently has around 7,800 members and is ranked in the top 10th percentile by size. If that seems off, this is not to be confused with That Looked Expensive, another subreddit that’s home to a million members.

Anywho, in many cases, those who have pain receptors in their wallets and have a normal understanding of the economy, know how many gallons of water a minute a bursting pipe can spew out and how much of the taxpayer’s money it will take to fix it. Or how much a public transit line bus and structural damage to a house in Seattle cost. Heck, you don’t even need damage—this oven costs $40,000. That alone can cause damage.

However, these are just our perceptions. Sure, a passenger plane is definitely very, very, expensive compared to the average cost of living. But can we truly know how much something costs?

Pricing things is an art in and of itself as there are at least a dozen ways to price products, services and other kinds of traded goods. It can be a flat rate, or a pay as you go, or tiered pricing, or pricing per user, or subscriptions… you get the idea.

But since everyone would ideally want to price things in the most lucrative way possible, does that truly reflect the price of something? Not entirely.

Pricing is just a set of methods to determine what you want for it, so it’s in that sense arbitrary. But they do consider the real costs of stuff within the economic context. Real, as in, how much it ended up costing.

Take the price of gas as an example. The four main factors that influence the price of gas is the cost of crude oil (the price of which depends on how it was extracted and how scarce it is), refining costs (the price manufacturers pay to turn it into a usable product), distribution (because convenience and practicality), and taxes (duh). All of these have specific numbers attached to them, giving you an idea of how much it realistically costs.

This is where it gets complicated as, if we consider the gas example again, we also have things like gas station upkeep, marketing and other costs that can vary depending on the time and place. Fine, these can also be calculated. OK, so, that leaves us with profit. How much is that? Well, enough to keep the suits happy, however much that is. Sure, it adheres to the laws of economics, supply and demand, among other things, but as long as someone is willing to pay for it, anything goes.

Then we also have another arbitrary factor and that is time. How much is time truly worth to someone? Is it a worthwhile trade-off to give money for things that you can make at home, you just need to put in more effort and time? And are those sweatpants worth the time and toil you spend working to get the money to pay for them? What about designer bags? Would you rather DIY things or just buy them?

Oh, there’s more. There’s this supermarket that shows true prices to people. It’s in downtown Amsterdam and the idea is that folks can see the “regular” price of things, say, tomatoes for €3.75 ($4.09). And then there’s the “real” price, which is €3.97 ($4.34). These show the hidden costs of growing and transporting them—the carbon emissions, worker underpayment, water, land, and all the other jazz that we as consumers ought to consider if we want our purchases to be ethical and sustainable.

Considering the cost of the materials, the manufacturing, the processing, the marketing, the logistics, the profit margins, the time, the effort, and the moral dilemmas that tie into the price of goods, you begin to see not just the real price, but also the reality of things and how every purchase truly matters in the grand scheme of economics.