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Oh god, this argument again?! They used the same argument for video games. "Oh stop complaining about our 80$ AAA video games, because NES games would cost you 60$ back then which is a lot more than 80$ today when adjusted for inflation." Yes we know, games and books are cheaper today when adjusted for inflation (along with stuff like phones, TVs, washing machines, etc) but you know what isn't cheaper? Everything else that's necessary for living: housing, bills, healthcare, education. So when people today have way less disposable income at the end of the month due to the massive CoL increases, they're not gonna be swayed to buy your books or games, with the argument that when adjusted for inflation they actually cost less than in the past. So the game and book publishers need to adapt to the new economic realities of their customers if they want to survive. You can't argue them into buying your stuff via inflation arguments, if they have less money. Less of an issue with gaming that's self regulating now via massive losses of AAA studios and a surge of indie games but IIRC book publishing is more complex. Normally, free market competition should fix this, but the problem is, unlike the race to the bottom TVs and washing machines, book publishing isn't always a free market but more of a cartel run by a few mafia monopolies and interest groups. |
From the article:
> Don’t blame books for being too expensive. Everything else is more expensive, and that’s why you can’t afford books.