The Grand Illusion
I recently read a reader’s comment about Overcaptain, a statement that he wasn’t about to pay trade paperback prices for an ebook. And yes, the initial publication ebook price is $15.00, but the trade paperback price in roughly eight months will likely be around $21.00, if not more, since the U.S. is the largest importer of paper in the world and most of that comes from Canada. Now that Trump has declared he’s going to impose a 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico for all imports, I suspect any such tariff will increase the price of printed books.
Inflation is hard on everyone, and it prompts recollections of the past. I can certainly remember when eight-ounce bottles of Coke were a dime and you could get a hamburger and fries at McDonalds for a quarter. But back then, the minimum wage was seventy-five cents an hour.
In the real and present world, inflation isn’t going away. So long as Americans insist on not paying enough taxes to cover the costs of what we want (collectively) while complaining about the government “stuff” the other guys and gals want and bitching about who is and who isn’t paying enough taxes, and wanting someone else to pay for it, we’re going to have inflation.
Also, just because something costs more doesn’t mean that those who provide it are getting rich. What too many readers don’t understand is that publishing is a low profit industry. Legal secretaries in New York can make 30-40% more than a senior fiction editor. One long-time very senior and successful F&SF editor (with a Ph.D. in comparative medieval literature) I knew used his expertise to find undervalued rare books and resell them in order to make ends meet. Most authors can’t make a living off their writing. I worked long hours in D.C. for nearly 20 years after first getting published (while writing on the side and selling every novel I wrote) before I could live off what I made as a writer… and I’m one of the fortunate few who’s managed to do so for an extended period of time.
So, while I can reminisce about inexpensive Cokes and hamburgers, I can also remember classmates wearing braces from polio, acquaintances with vision damaged by measles, a swimmer I knew dying from an automobile accident before seatbelts were required, and a whole host of other recollections far less pleasant, most of which kinds of unpleasantness no longer occur because of government regulations.
But nostalgia about the past, anger about the rising costs of inflation, and blaming the rest of the world and imposing tariffs on ourselves are so much easier than actually dealing with the causes of that inflation.
LEM,
I’m still not sure what time period MAGA wishes to visit from the past. I’m sure you, me, and others contributing can easily point out the not-so-great aspects of times past (as you pointed out a few above). I can very easily remember my mother feeding us Swanson TV dinners quite often when we were growing up in the 60s. And those were crap by today’s standards.
I actually think that MAGA and liberals agree that the deck is stacked in favor of zillionaires.
MAGA folks look at their own grocery bills, jobs, and opportunities for advancement and feel that the deck is stacked and they are screwed. Which isn’t wrong.
Liberals look at out of control C-Suite salaries, health care costs, and regulatory capture, and feel that the vast majority of people are screwed. Which isn’t wrong.
Each group can get sidetracked by getting mad at this group or that group, but in the end the problem is the power of the oligarchs.
There were a few decades in the postwar (WW2) United States where upward mobility increased and society became more equitable. This was also a time when there were real news investigators who had national influence.
I think that this postwar period looks more and more like an anomaly in human history, rather than a wished-for positive trend leading into the future.
MAGA responds by punching down and having faith in an oligarch who sure isn’t like the others. Liberals respond by looking for policy changes that will decrease inequity.
Both approaches are doomed because the inequities are so vast that the oligarchs exist in a gated community, untouchable by the policy initiatives of any one country.
Good luck to us all.
LEM, as you’ve just demonstrated, understanding the basis of any complex problem requires a great deal of knowledge, skill, and especially effort devoted to analyzing it.
Most people would rather jump at a slogan or sound bite.
Which leaves them ripe to be exploited by demagogues, of course…
I’m not going to get into politics here but l do want to say that whatever I paid Apple for the e-book version of Overcaptain is probably more than I wanted to pay. But that’s not going to stop me from eagerly awaiting the next book. And, guess what, even if the price has gone up by the time that next book is released I’m most likely going to pay it and still enjoy the book!
Dealing with cause is difficult: it involves looking at oneself in the mirror and acting practically within one’s capabilities and one’s resources.
Balance that reality!
Tom — yes. And that’s the only real fix.