3 ms·

Books don't cost $C/book to produce, they additionally cost $X to research, write, market, etc. And $X is much much larger than $C. So to take your example, as

by vec 14y ago

Books don't cost $C/book to produce, they additionally cost $X to research, write, market, etc. And $X is much much larger than $C. So to take your example, assuming X=12 and C=1, if I sell my books for $6 and $9, respectively, I make $1 profit, but if I'm forced to sell them both at $6 I lose $2. Price discrimination is often a Good Thing, on balance. The takeaway from allowing price discrimination isn't (mainly) that Americans get gouged, it's that Thai students get access to textbooks they wouldn't otherwise be able to afford.

Someone 14y ago
There are two sides to it: the Thai student gets the book at a lower price, and the US student gets it at a higher price, and the two may not balance out. In your example, a publisher might sell 2M copies of that X=12M book, 1M for $6 each in Thailand and 1M in the US for $100 each, making a huge margin of (106-12)/12=785%. In a free market competition should decrease that margin. However, the markets for books isn't entirely a free one. For many books, competitors cannot make close enough clones to actually compete (Harry Potter and fifty shades of grey inspired 'clones' aren't really clones; a physics textbook may have the same content, but it cannot have the exact same presentation order, questions, etc) The publishers argue that will be offset by other books that also cost them X=12M of which they sell, say, 10K in Thailand for $6 and 10K in the US for $100 at a huge loss. There probably is truth in that, but should one try and enforce that through regulation? If so, how? Prescribe that publishers can make at most x% on every dollar they spend at a printer every year? That would likely make them find more expensive printers for their US wares.
darkarmani 14y ago
> The takeaway from allowing price discrimination isn't (mainly) that Americans get gouged, First of all, no one is talking about disallowing price discrimination. You can always price your books however you'd like. The argument is whether the Federal Government should be involved with providing the artificial means to price discrimination for a specific industry. > it's that Thai students get access to textbooks they wouldn't otherwise be able to afford. How do you know this? If there is a viability for local publishers in Thailand you'd never know it, because US publishers can compete unfairly with them by subsidizing their Thai sales with large US margins. If US publishers had healthy international competition, the Thai students would be better served. How is this not unfair dumping into the international scene?

by vec 14y ago

Someone 14y ago

There are two sides to it: the Thai student gets the book at a lower price, and the US student gets it at a higher price, and the two may not balance out. In your example, a publisher might sell 2M copies of that X=12M book, 1M for $6 each in Thailand and 1M in the US for $100 each, making a huge margin of (106-12)/12=785%. In a free market competition should decrease that margin. However, the markets for books isn't entirely a free one. For many books, competitors cannot make close enough clones to actually compete (Harry Potter and fifty shades of grey inspired 'clones' aren't really clones; a physics textbook may have the same content, but it cannot have the exact same presentation order, questions, etc) The publishers argue that will be offset by other books that also cost them X=12M of which they sell, say, 10K in Thailand for $6 and 10K in the US for $100 at a huge loss. There probably is truth in that, but should one try and enforce that through regulation? If so, how? Prescribe that publishers can make at most x% on every dollar they spend at a printer every year? That would likely make them find more expensive printers for their US wares.

darkarmani 14y ago

> The takeaway from allowing price discrimination isn't (mainly) that Americans get gouged, First of all, no one is talking about disallowing price discrimination. You can always price your books however you'd like. The argument is whether the Federal Government should be involved with providing the artificial means to price discrimination for a specific industry. > it's that Thai students get access to textbooks they wouldn't otherwise be able to afford. How do you know this? If there is a viability for local publishers in Thailand you'd never know it, because US publishers can compete unfairly with them by subsidizing their Thai sales with large US margins. If US publishers had healthy international competition, the Thai students would be better served. How is this not unfair dumping into the international scene?