Re: Wiley-Blackwell 2009 Subscription and Licensing Options

[Thomas Krichel <krichel@openlib.org>]

Joseph J. Esposito writes

> Thomas Krichel's wit is worthy of Swift, but the underlying 
> economic principle of his entertaining satire is simply wrong.

I don't mean to be satirical. I don't see where I am wrong.

> Publishers do not set prices based on costs,

I did not claim that they could. Thus the rest of Joe's post, 
until the line "This thread began with..." simply demonstrates 
how forcefully Joe can flog a dead horse ;-)

> This thread began with Fred Friend asking, Why does the stuff 
> cost so darn much?  It's a reasonable question.  But we can't 
> get to an answer by impugning people's motives or engaging in 
> financially unsophisticated arguments.  The crisis of scholarly 
> communications is that a small number of people want a real lot 
> of stuff.  It is thus a small and expensive market to serve.

Joe is quite right to turn the blame for high prices from 
suppliers to customers. A small number of people want a real lot 
of stuff they don't pay for. If you tell the same people, look, 
we can spend this $X on journals, or we can spend the some $X on 
travel funds for conferences, the reading wishes would stop. It 
won't happen because libraries are addicited to buying the 
material because it's all that they can do. When this system is 
gone they will die. They don't like the idea of dying.

Cheers,

Thomas Krichel                    http://openlib.org/home/krichel
                               RePEc:per:1965-06-05:thomas_krichel
                                              skype: thomaskrichel