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<p>Again, this is part of the problem and not part of the solution. </p>
<p>Faculty members tend to fall for the blandishments of publishers, which include nice wine and cheese spreads at academic conferences, constant spam, and direct mail. If professors wanted both uniformity/standardization and DID have the best interest of the STUDENTS at heart, they would recommend older versions as opposed to the glossy new ones. This would make the older versions more valuable and make it less profitable to crank out new versions at such rapid pace. Again, the reason the publishers AND the authors like new versions is that the bulk of the work has been done and that they WANT new profits. When books are sold second-hand, none of the profits goes to the publishers or the original authors --as it SHOULD since they made their money at the original sale. Once a book is purchased, it belongs to its owner and that is something that does not seem to please that industry.</p>
<p>The reality is that students do not need newer and bloated versions of the same book; they need shorter and BETTER books. Except for a few classes, most of the books are barely covered in a typical trimester or semester. Just look at the second-hand books that are available at the end of terms … most are barely scratched or marked. </p>
<p>As far as the slim margins of college bookstores, is there anyone who would object to buying a second-hand book at a 40% discount and reselling it to the store at a 60% discount? If an original book is “worth” $100, a student could buy it for 60 and resell it for 40 to the store. Profit margin for the “poor” store would be FIFTY PERCENT ($40 X 150% = $60) Indeed, cry me a river! Of course, a net cost of $20 to a student is NOT what this industry has in mind. They want their pound of flesh of this “unprofitable” academic business. A visit to a academic book fair will remove any doubts about the value of this business to the publishers AND the people they try to woo --despite Barron’s POOYA 7.6% margin! </p>
<p>All in all, this is not different from the general economics of our education system. Decisions are rarely made by the … people who foot the bill. Costs have and are increasing much, much faster than any level of inflation. One reason is that most decision makers are working out of pure self-interest and cost-savings measures are the …enemy because they reduce the pool of money. The more one administration spends, the more can be diverted to pet projects or to outright corruption. </p>
<p>When will this escalation stop?</p>