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This has the virtue of appealing to all political factions. For example, in many cases, a professor will make a few changes in a textbook, thus creating a “new edition.” Not only is the price of the new book inflated, but the professor can require that the students use the “new, improved” version.
That might make sense if the book reveals the latest discoveries in nanotechnology, but if the subject is philosophers from hundreds or thousands of years ago, it is not only a burden for the students, but also a potential conflict of interest for the professor-author.
Acta Philosophorum, $1740 on Amazon. At the college bookstore, I hate to think how much.
One of my instructors in college required an expensive hard bound edition of Moby Dick, but I bought a used paperback. The only problem was when they referred to a page number that was different from my version, but I did OK.
Electronic books may go a long way to lower costs, but only if “the system” allows it to happen.
But one of the dangers in “reforming the system” is that you will create a new bureaucracy. Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. Like the government “help” we got to “cure” the 2008 crash.