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Why should people buying a used book give money to the author? He already got paid once!
If I buy a used car, I don't send money off to Detroit. If I buy a used bookshelf, I don't hunt up the original manufacturer and send them a check. Why should I pay the author again for his book and not the manufacturer of the shelf I put it on or the car I brought it home in?
Once you sell something, whether it's a car or a bookshelf or a book, you've sold it; there's no obligation on anyone's part to pay you again every time it changes hands.
The same is true of lending; if you borrow my car, you don't have to pay the manufacturer, either. I can even rent out my car without having to pay anyone off.
The idea of paying every time you read a book, whether it's bought, borrowed, used, whatever, is another step closer to "one book, one set of eyes, one time" which is, in turn, another step in the decline of reading.
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