How much does a college student yearly spend on textbooks?
Nobody really knows and, for the most part, really cares, as students are the proverbial short-timers -- here today -- gone tomorrow. Even so, these exploited transient students are fighting an epic battle against the textbook Death Star as prices have annually risen 6 percent since the mid-1980s.
Skyrocketing textbook prices, increasing cost-of-attendance and ridiculous prices for pilsners kegs -- you have a college education that's bankrupting students. It's a very complicated problem, but here's a brief, yet revealing look.
Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press in his garage in Strasbourg Germany (c. 1439) and, within a couple fortnights, formed the Books R Us publishing company, cranking out scads of mentally invigorating books like: Fire Safety by Joan of Arc, Love Sonnets for a Round World by Christopher Columbus, and The Abacus for Dummies by We Fun Yoo.
Johnny, as his friends call him, traveled from hamlet to hamlet, selling freshly printed books from his ox cart's trunk. A true entrepreneur, he projected quarterly net revenue losses without gullible, naïve college students believing that buying textbooks would lead to passing classes.
Johnny's profitable "circle of the book" works the same now as back then. An author writes a textbook and sends it to a publisher who edits, prints, markets, and sells it. A year or so later, the author changes some minuscule portion of the book so the publisher can edit, print, market, and sell it as the "New Enhanced Edition." Thus rendering the previous version obsolete and worth used book world doggy doo-doo.
This, of course, is known as "Natural Selection." It might appall you but, like the jungle's circle of life, textbooks must die so new ones can be sold at a profit. Would you like the authors and publishers to go hungry? I didn't think so!
As you'd expect, an integral part of this circle are lowly college students who willingly shell out $96.95 for the paperback Intellectual Interpretations of the Poetic Love, use it maybe twice during class and then sell it back for less than a cheeseburger with fries. That's if the book is still being used, because if it's tumbled into the pit of unworthy textbooks, it's basically, unequivocally, and totally worth squat.
You see, used textbooks are a thorn in publishers' sides; causing them to become antagonistic, starting fights in corporate restrooms over air quality. Publishers and authors receive zilch from used book sales. Yes, it's a sad tale only slightly overshadowed by George W. sending troops to invade Iraq.
An author who spends years writing Systematic Insemination of Grey-rumped Swallows and the publisher who spends 3 to 5 years producing it, must jack up the price to offset the devastation caused by used textbooks, student textbook co-ops, online resources, CEO salaries, and high-priced congressional lobbyists (YOU find a cheap lunch menu in Washington DC!).
They'll do anything to pitch new books to instructors including adding supplemental materials like exams, lecture outlines, final grades, office hours, and tickets to Bermuda. Guess who pays for this stuff? Well, it isn't the tooth fairy!
So, there's the dilemma! Publishers want to become obscenely wealthy but cheapskate students want to afford food. And, while buying used books can save students at least 25 percent off new ones, such sales don't add to the publisher's coffers.
Savvy students know better deals are to be had buying cheaper books online or at Garcia's Snorkels and Books in sunny Havana Cuba. They also exchange books among themselves following FDA "safe exchange" guidelines by wrapping books in giant latex covers.
But, even if a book can be had for less money, it doesn't mean faculty will actually use it, choose it next time the class is offered, be teaching at the school again, or remember where they put the Bermuda tickets.
Academic freedom is about not having to say you're sorry -- enabling college teachers to do just about anything they want. Including miraculously disappearing when students need a signature.
Of course, getting stuck with a stack of unwanted textbooks is enough to piss off (pardon my vulgarity) even the most well-read, dedicated, introverted, odoriferous student. A hardbound version of Influential Political Realms of Pre-Renaissance Greenland might prove useful when the toilet paper runs out but a student trying to scrape together gas money to drive home would really rather have the cash.
At this very moment efforts to right the wrong are being waged. Compassionate professors have totally done away with textbooks, offering pertinent classroom resources on papyrus scrolls or stone tablets. Even legislators wrestle with the problem, coming up with intriguing strategies like requiring publishers to disclose pricing formulas, allowing professors to bet on greyhound races in Baghdad, or forcing students to major in The Art of Mime.
There's no easy solution to this complex problem, but for an invigorating look at the delicate nuances surrounding mass print media sales, read A Guide to Higher Education Textbooks, 3rd Edition. Oh, the 4th edition will be out soon. You really don't expect to sell back the 3rd Edition -- do you?
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