3 ms·
We're recognizing, we're recognizing: http://minireference.com/ http://minireference.com/ ;) Part of the issue is that there are many moving parts in the val
by ivan_ah 13y ago
We're recognizing, we're recognizing: http://minireference.com/ http://minireference.com/ ;)
Part of the issue is that there are many moving parts in the value chain: students, profs, authors, publishers, distributors, and bookstores. The exploitation has persisted mainly because the decision maker in the sales process is not the client! Mainstream publishers are milking this fact as much as they possibly can. Insultingly so, you're right. The main problem is that schools and universities are incredibly slow to adapt so the racket continues, but with students taking textbook decisions into their own hands things will change.
I'm optimistic that within the next couple of years, the $130 price tags will be a thing of the past. The market says so.
- brownbat 13y agoAs long as professors are allowed to write textbooks, others in their department will be pressured to require them. Every given textbook will have several coauthors at different schools, each contributing a chapter, making the book required for students spread across the country. Ordinarily I'd put my bet on market forces, and I really hope you're right... This is so much closer to monopolistic extortion though, I don't see it changing without lawsuits, regulation, or large donations to University presidents contingent on new textbook policies.
- bunderbunder 13y agoThe last option is intriguing. Just reorganizing things so that textbooks are covered by tuition and have to be paid for out of departmental budgets could dramatically change the situation overnight.
- russell 13y agoOK, I bought your stinking book. I learned calculus using Apostol in 1962, so it had better be good. Apostol was stinking hard, so yours had better be easy to understand. :-) I'm not sure what I need it for. My children are all adults, although I did teach them calculus in high school.