Whither Goest the Textbook?

Textbooks have become a significant part of a student's education costs. I have to ask; has calculus changed much in 100 years? Is a fifty year old paperback copy of Hemingway better than that new one in the school book store? How about that Physics text? Newton did that stuff a while back.

Then again we add the color pictures which for the most part add nothing other than profit and back problems later in life. Finally a comment in the NY Times:

As the semester ends, instructors at universities and community colleges around the country will begin placing their orders for next year’s textbooks. But not all professors will pay enough attention to something that students complain about: the outlandish prices of the books we assign. Having grown at many times the rate of inflation, the cost of a leading economics book can be over $250; a law school casebook plus supplement can cost $277. Adding to such prices is the dubious trend of requiring students to obtain digital access codes, averaging $100, to complete homework assignments.

 There is a Professor I have been following from time to time who puts out a text which he loves to acclaim as a best seller. First it is on a topic that claims to be science but is at best poorly observed human behavior using math as an attempt to lend it some credibility. But I suspect that his text brings in a tone of money and nearly burdens beyond belief a great number of students. A new edition appears every few years demanding ever increasing payments and glee from the author!

The piece continues:

The root problem is that it is just too easy for us, the professors, to spend other people’s money. Just like doctors who prescribe expensive medicine, we don’t feel the pain of buying a $211 book of uneven quality and no real use when the course is finished, or a digital access code that costs $100 and is designed at least in part to disable the used-book market. The fact that professors choose and students buy destroys whatever power a competitive market might have to keep prices lower. That, and a touch of greed — the author of one successful book has earned an estimated $42 million in royalties — is why textbook prices have increased over 1,000 percent since the 1970s.

If one were to need new texts then there are a few fields which would warrant them such as genomics which changes daily. But economics? First there are so many "schools" of economics that any one author is at best giving their opinion. Second, there are a few basic observations but data is more relevant that an exorbitant text. Third, the digital access is a true extreme in my opinion.

My first book was written in 1969. It was published by Wiley and costs about $12.00 a copy. My second in 1989 again by Wiley and costs about $30.00. Inflation accounted for the rise. Since then and with the Internet I can write without the need for a publisher. The purpose is to get ideas out there. Strangely the biggest downloaded test is one I used to teach Multimedia Communications in 1989 at MIT! It is a 30 year old class text that seems to have a demand which is greater than many others! Why? Got me...maybe ahead of its time.

Academics making millions off the backs of already impoverished students and then demanding that we all be taxed for the purpose of controlling CO2 is, well, I won't use the terms. Let us say that technology controls CO2 not taxes. But the mind set in my humble opinion is improper.

Three cheers for this OpEd.