Essays

I have been writing essays for my english classes so I figured, why deprive others from the joy of reading my obnoxious rants.

On Textbooks

If there were a greater number of textbook publishing companies then college book prices would be lower as a result of the competition.
At the beginning of every college semester students turn their wallets and bank accounts inside out because of the outrageous prices of books. In a few cases the reason books are so expensive is because the bookstores are scalping the prices in order to profit, but most textbooks cost between thirty and one hundred and fifty dollars. The root of the problem goes back to the publishers because after talking to several textbook writers I found that the royalties are very minimal. The job of the publishing company is to select the best books out of the masses, edit them and find a printer to make them; if the publisher does a good job they can make large amounts of money. The first way a company can make money is to choose a quality book, without a good book no one will buy it. If the book company decides on a book that will be a necessity, like a math, English or biology book then they are set up to earn more money, because there are fewer companies publishing those types of books. The next thing a company needs to do to make money is to edit the book and find the fastest cheapest printing company. Finally they choose a price that looks just low enough to be sold but much higher than it is truly worth.
The first thing that would lower these costs is if there were a larger number of companies publishing textbooks, because if there were more companies, there would be competition. One of the most basic principals of economics is that if there is competition, prices of the product decrease.