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Originally Posted by issybird
I’m going to quibble with some of your language. I take your textbook point; that textbooks have always been expensive doesn’t negate it. And yes, students don’t have much choice in the mattter. However, that’s a horse of quite a different color from wanting to read the book following a cliff hanger, which I don’t think qualifies as a “need” even in quotes. As far as entertainment goes, books really are pretty fungible. It would be different if there weren’t a lot of books out there that are cheap or free to access.
I also think that when you buy something, you can’t pay more than you think it’s worth. It might be more than you think it’s intrinsically worth, but other factors have to bring it up to the actual cost. You can pay less than you think something’s worth, but you really can’t pay more.
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The language on both sides is imprecise, but I hope the examples made the point clear. You saying "you can’t pay more than you think it’s worth" suggests you don't believe price gouging is a thing to be concerned with, and you don't believe usury can exist. It's "worth" paying 1000% per week interest because I don't want my legs broken.
I believe there is a spectrum of "need" and of "worth" and that there does not need to be an arbitrary hard threshold set at, say, life-and-death issues. Similarly, there is a spectrum of appropriate responses. Which segues nicely to....
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Sure. Although I don’t know how you go about it. Moral suasion? Government price-fixing?
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Sure, there's a range of possible responses. In the case of gouging or usury, maybe a call for government action is warranted. In the case of book three in the series being priced $2 higher than you think it should, maybe a letter to the publisher expressing your displeasure, and telling them how when you go to pick out your next random genre book, you may be inclined to avoid their imprints...a customer-dissatisfaction boycott of one (or more if others share your opinion).
And there's a range in between. In the case of this VAT thing, maybe folks contact their government representatives (they have those in VAT countries, right?) and push for tax reform. Maybe something like asking that in order to qualify for corporate tax breaks like this, some savings must be passed on to the consumer. That's just an example, I don't know how VAT works, how foreign law works, and I'm generally not in favor of that kind of government meddling.