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What Haertig said about products and services got me thinking. There is some level of service with every product. Someone (or a team of people) has to come up with the idea for a new product, then someone (who may or may not be the person who had the idea) makes the product. Then there is the cost of materials. In the case of a large, tangible product like an automobile the cost of the materials is significant. Or the restaurant meal Haertig mentioned may include hard-to-find expensive ingredients.
In the case of a book, a lot of what we are paying for is the creativity and possibly research work of the author plus the services of the author, editor and publisher. Should we discount the value of their work just because we aren't buying a physical paper book? Do we want to reward their work so they will keep creating new ebooks?
I personally don't have the funds to buy every book I'd like to read at the price charged when the book is new. I am grateful that there are people who can afford to pay the new-book price to help keep the authors and publishers turning out books, even if I have to wait for those books to drop in price or become available at the library before I can read them.
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