I don't think Microsoft and it's soulless kind care about the needs of the common man. Seriously, why don't they just make stuff cheap? If it's cheap, more people buy, so they can produce more and make more money on the long run. Do you really think that the price of producing something and the price it's sold at are two related numbers?
I work in a store where the previously mentioned principle is applied. The products we sell are like, 35% cheaper than the competitors' prices (same product, though) and the profit is still around 200% (!) of the price of manufacturing.
Now think about it: no other company makes Xboxes. The only other real competition is the Playstation, but if there's only 2 companies who compete, what stops them from keeping the prices artificially high (despite there being regulations against this kind of stuff in most countries)?
tl;dr: Your toaster at home probably worths just as much hardware wise as those Xboxes and Playstations. Also, fuck them, buy a PC.