Thread by @doctorow

Last week, I wrote up @Econ_Marshall's case for forgiving student debt (we're already doing it, but only after it has destroyed debtors' lives).

pluralistic.net/2020/11/20/sov…

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By counterpoint, @michael_olenick argues that we shouldn't forgive student debt, we should make it easier to discharge it in bankruptcy - that way the predatory lenders get nothing and the bankrupt borrowers aren't stuck with a huge tax bill.

nakedcapitalism.com/2020/11/michae…

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Olenick offers some interesting technical and political notes on this, as well as some zingers (he calls bankruptcy "the Donald Trump special"), but I was struck by a quoted email exchange with @yvessmith about textbook pricing.

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Textbooks are thoroughly monopolized, dominated by a handful of publishers who've reinvented themselves as "ed-tech" companies, but the "tech" is largely in service to price gouging.

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Textbooks were always expensive, but for many courses (especially introductory ones) this was offset through the robust market in used texts (indeed, I remember an econ prof explaining that the price of textbooks reflected the expectation that many students would buy used).

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In the years since I dropped out of university (four universities, two years, no degree, virtually no student debt), textbook publishers have figured out how to keep those high prices while eliminating the used market, extracting ever-larger sums from students.

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The method is a combination of convincing profs to produce new editions of texts - even intro texts whose subjects barely change from year to year - and to assign "e-learning" components that require a login (bundled with new books) to read.

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Why would profs assign new editions of texts when nothing has changed? Two reasons: first, they get bribed to do so; second, the e-learning resources are revised so they no longer work with old texts.

vice.com/en/article/paj…

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That's how textbooks have increased in price by 812% (inflation adjusted) since 1972.

In case that seems abstract, Olenick offers a solid example: Paul Krugman's "Economics," a standard introductory text, now in its sixth edition in 15 years.

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Olenick: "because, you know, introductory economics for two-year degree students has radically changed since the first edition was published in 2005."

The 6th edition will set you back $395.50.

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How about the fifth edition? $126.32 (or $28.95 in paperback). That's new, not used. Why is the fifth marked down by $169.18? Because to use it in a classroom, you have to separately purchase a $115.24 "access code."

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This is literally a textbook example a distorted, monopolized market, maintained through grift. It isn't the only reason Americans have $1.7T in student debt, but it's a big part of it.

Image:
Inayaysad
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coll…

CC BY
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa…

eof/