Pricing is a thorny issue. There have been many issues put out by Ron and others concerning this topic. But LRH's original intent was that an org's services should be obtainable by the average person at a reasonable rate (ref: HCO PL 23 Sept 64 Policies: Dissemination and Programs).

In the late 70s, the pricing situation in orgs became intolerable. Inflation worldwide was extremely high and LRH ED 284 The Solution to Inflation was issued as an answer to this problem. Various revisions and extensions to this LRH ED were issued subsequently, and after LRH's passing, others issued similar edicts. Even some of the issues from LRH contradicted other issues he had written.

However, it appears that whatever policies are now in place, pricing for services across the globe are far from obtainable by the average person at reasonable rates. One recent analysis of advanced org services shows that, between the period 1974 and 1996, the prices rose a staggering 2264%, or almost 23 times their original rates. (This does not include the aberration of insisting on 14 intensives of sec checking on OT VII and other such insanities.)

In 1976, the price of an intensive (12-1/2 hours) of auditing was $625 in the United States. I encourage you to check the price of that same item at your local org today and conduct your own comparison of that price against inflation since 1976. I believe you will find the two figures out of line. The pricing of other items, particularly those of advanced services, has risen even more than the base price of an intensive at your local org.

Now, if you were an SP and wanted to prevent people from availing themselves of the way out of the trap of this universe, could one way perhaps be to price the route out of the trap so that only the rich and powerful could afford it?