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Bill[_110_]

wrote:
On Thu, 4 Mar 2021 01:52:52 -0500, Bill wrote:

Emanuel Berg wrote:
Leon wrote:

Yeah, many/most books can be less expensive than a tool

Maybe they can be but with the exception of power tools they
aren't, and certainly not if we talk university textbooks...

Of course, as you may know, university textbooks fall into a "rigged"
(monopolistic) framework. I think that the Internet is countering that
a bit for folks who like e-books.

I don't know how it is now but at one time people were re importing
textbooks because they were being sold for a fraction of what they
cost here.

Yes, in some countries, there is little hesitation about copying
software or other publications onto a CD, and selling them for $5 on the
open market. One of the factors keeping expensive books relevant, is the
added "online-resources" (consisting of homework problems that the
student is required to do, an e-copy of the textbook, along with extra
video lectures of the material). Such a "book" may run $175, and even
a re-purchaser (i.e. every re-purchaser) of it will need to pay $75 or
so to access the online-resources for a semester or two. In some sense,
these
more expensive books serve the students more effectively than the old
ones. Many students are happy to just pay the $75 and forego a physical
copy of the textbook. On the other hand, the cost of tuition, not so
heavily subsidized by the state, as in yesteryear, makes the cost of the
textbooks a relatively small expense, even if it might reach as much as
$1000 some semesters.