Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
I'm saying that compared to inflation, books cost considerably less than they did just 20 years ago. Some prices drop over time because the cost of production goes down, but much of the production cost of books is people cost, not technology cost. The cost of the actual printing has gone down, but that's just a small, small piece of the overall cost.
My point is that simply asserting that books should cost less, and therefore readers are getting ripped off should be seen in that light. Cars cost a lot more than they did 20 years ago, as do houses and food. Why shouldn't books be expected to have the same dynamic?
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Have wages risen at the same overall rate as inflation? I would say not. I would say that people in general have less money for non-essentials (like books) than they did twenty years ago. If book prices have not tracked inflation, I would say that was because publishers know that sales would go down far more if the prices got much higher. I really don't see book prices not being higher as a sign that readers are lucky, rather it is a sign that they find it more difficult to pay the prices. If people are grumbling that books cost too much, it is within the context of dropping disposable incomes.