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Originally Posted by MrsJoseph
Each and every one is paid for with my dime and your dime AND they are MORE EXPENSIVE than what is available commercially.
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They're also utilized more frequently and by more people than when I, as an individual, purchase an ebook. They're less expensive to maintain, they don't need to be replaced (even if the whole library burns down), they can be checked out much faster and more frequently than paper books. Thus, it does make sense that library ebooks may carry a premium, especially if RH does honor the "perpetual" aspect.
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Originally Posted by MrsJoseph
....I'm not even going to touch your comments about schools - since the "drivers of literacy" being a school 100% depends on the quality of the schools children have access to.
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...and then you proceed to talk about schools for a full paragraph.
I'm not saying that every school is 100% perfect. I'm pointing out that while many libraries do offer literacy training and are an excellent resource for their communities, it's screamingly obvious that the overwhelming majority of people learn to read in schools, not in libraries.
I.e. if every public library in the US closed its doors today, society would be negatively impacted, but literacy rates would not drop significantly.
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Originally Posted by MrsJoseph
So how is it that the authors and publishers take part in the benefits of our society and then are not required to give back?
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They are, in the same way as everyone else: They are taxed, and encouraged to donate to charities.
If a publisher
chooses to contribute their products as a public good, that's their choice. If you threaten them with prosecution because they charge too much, that's going to end up detrimental -- especially if they decide to stop library sales altogether, in order to avoid prosecution.
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Originally Posted by MrsJoseph
citizens who helped to educate and support authors and the people who publish them deserve something back for their support. I think paid for copies of books are the least that can be done.
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And I disagree. Free public Libraries are a public good and a government service. As such the cost of them should be primarily borne by the public, who wants those services.
It's no different than any other government service. A fire or police department should not be able to
force vendors to fix prices for them or apply discounts; that should be at the discretion of the retailer. Someone who owns a well-reputed work of art and chooses to sell it to the highest bidder should not be required by law to sell it to the Smithsonian, and only charge 50% more than the price she paid for it. If a hospital has a bad credit rating, the normal procedure is for a lender to charge a higher interest rate to compensate for the risks; should this be classified as "gouging" and therefore declared illegal?
I.e. you need a little something more than a gut feeling before you insist that government step in and fix prices.