Translation rate down

(somewhat similar to "Black Hawk down" ...)
Maybe I just "don't get it"  ... all around me, on a daily basis, prices are going up. For just about everything. The other day I went to get a hair cut. AFTER I was done, the shop keeper said: "Prices have gone up. This will now be xxx." where the xxx represents a price 25% higher than in the past. All I (and every other customer) can do is silently nod and pay the new price. That's possibly not exactly life, but it certainly is business.

At about the same time, I got a small job from a translation company for which I have been working for at least 15 years. AFTER the job was done and delivered, the coordinator sent me a mail, saying that this is a "normal" translation (as opposed to the technical materials I usually work with) and the company will therefore pay 30% less than usual.
There was nothing easier than usual about this work AND nobody told me in advance of this "change in payment policy", so I did bill them the usual rate.

However, this is just one of the many examples of those "Black Hawk Down" scenarios, where translation agencies and/or customers unilaterally cut translation rates, sending the translator spiraling into the dust to die.
I ***DO NOT*** understand the rationale behind these price cuts. Even if manufacturers may be able to "make" computers for example cheaper due to improved manufacturing methods, the time and work involved in half-way acceptable translation does not change much or at all. The use of those strange CAT tools has for the work I get, NEVER been proven helpful.

Or is every younger person working with translations is at least 10 times more efficient than I am ... and in addition has no family to support and thus can afford to work for peanuts?????