Well, you're American, so why shouldn't you?

because they treat other people perhaps maybe not as well as they could?
what is the value of a game? what is the value of currency?
what was one price last week is now a different price this week, and why?
What is the value of hard work? what is the value of code and pixels?
basically to me, it's always come down to this, if you can get it cheaper some place else, do it.

Well... I love it too. But not the prices. :)
Its just not fair. I really love Valve's games, but this is a stupid thing to do. They use EU currency even for countries that are not in the EU or don't use the euro as their main currency.

A game is worth precisely what you are willing to pay for it. If you are willing to pay whatever price steam charges for a game in your country then that game is worth exactly that amount. "Value" is not fixed, it varies from person to person. If you don't like steams prices, simply don't buy. If you are willing to pay for the quick easy downloaded game then its clearly worth that. What people pay in other countries is quite frankly irrelevant.
At the end of the day they should be allowed to charge whatever the hell they want for the games, unfortunately the law prevents them from doing so, but that is beside the point.

THREAD NECROMANCY!

And where is uruk? He is our necromancer. Or thread necromancy is not his discipline?

What's the occasion? Did Steam fuck up again?

Steam is EVIL

That where you are! Get back to moping up the floors at the necromancer school now!
Not a word out of you or your going to die a death full of pain then turn in to a zombie doom to be slayed by the hands of a good doer paladin.
For not cleaning up the floors the first time.Where going to show you true pain.
Undead minions ready the dungeon!

I'm in Brazil and am a regular Steam customer only because I'm charged in Dollars. The retail market for games over here is hampered by brutal import taxes that can get as high as 60%, plus old games don't get price cuts (mostly due to poor salesmanship) so you're left with old game boxes gathering dust in stores. Last week I saw the original STALKER and GTA San Adnreas at a store for roughly R$100 each, that's almost US$50 for games that came out years ago. Under these circumstances Steam is undoubtedly the best alternative.
That said, if I was in Europe I probably wouldn't buy from steam. How's the situation in other digital distribution stores such as Direct2Drive, do they charge Europeans in Euros too?

Afraid so. Any company does that switches to Euro. The only difference with D2D is some games can still be bought from their US store even if you are in Europe. GOG are the exception as they are still $ worldwide a I hope to god they stay that way. GamersGate are based in Europe and you get decent prices when the publisher doesn't set them. When they do it's the same deal you get with Steam. GreenManGaming are based in the UK so their prices are reasonable but they don't have any AAA titles.

D2D UK is a decent option too, as UK prices tend to be better than Euro prices and most items in the store can be bought within the EU (outside the UK) as well.