Ancient Observer,
Nonsensical argument you're putting forward unfortunately.
Name me an industry that does't have staff discounts. The aviation/travel industry has AD50/AD75 for example.
It's simply not feasible to use staff discounts as a means to show companies are ripping people off. And in the case of the IT industry, believe me, there's not enough margin to rip-off the end-user, plus the competition is so fierce at the bottom end of the foodchain.
Similarly, in the IT industry, there's a concept of NFR ("Not For Resale"). Expensive stuff can generally be had at substantial discounts by resellers, on the understanding that it's only to be used for the purposes of demonstration and staff training (which makes sense !)..... you can't then go on to say that just because a company is able to give an, say, an 80% NFR discount that they're ripping everybody off. The NFR price is set at (or frequently below) cost, is subject to quantity and contractual limitations, and not all manufacturers run NFR programmes.
The vagaries and complexities of the IT industry are too vast to explain here on PPRuNE. The same goes for the basic concepts of business. This is my last post on this thread, I can't be bothered any more, as it's obviously one of those hamsterwheel threads that could be debated until the cows come home.