The problem with pricing is more complex than just this. Compared to e.g. Europe, Russia and Japan, Americans give themselves a really hard time because they allow taxes and fees not to be included in the "price". When you shop in Europe, Japan or Russia, the price equals the amount of money you hand over to take the product home. Taxes and fees are not the problem of the customer, they are the problem of the vendor.

Having been in Europe a lot and having experienced the ease of their system, I keep being surprised that Americans are willing to deal with the hassle of all these different sales taxes and other fees that are added when leaving the store. It is virtually impossible to understand as a customer what taxes and fees will apply. Even a simple trip to the supermarket is horribly confusing. Different sales tax rates apply for food, drug and alcohol products. And if you live near a state border, it gets al the more confusing because the next state has a complete set of different rules, making comparing prices even harder.

In all, when you shop and watch the prices in a store, adding those numbers is useless, because some semi-random amount will be added to the total anyway. I believe that this practise is at the root of all evil here.