LogFAQs > #965636775

In an ideal, infinite free market, they would. In practice, consumer prices tend to increase whenever commodity prices increase (with a certain delay/buffer to keep pricing competitive and minimize sticker shock) so the corporations driving prices can maintain their margins, while decreases in commodity prices often result in corporations keeping prices constant for a while so they can milk those savings for their own benefit instead of passing them on to the consumer, generally only dropping them when they can't get away with that greed anymore.

The current price of gas is an excellent example of this: Crude prices are actually down and there is no genuine global shortage, oil companies are just able to get away with jacking up their prices because most people accept that they're going to be high due to Putin adopting the role of Douchewaffle Supreme and the belief that that's going to negatively impact global oil supply (which it has, but not this much).