strange quote of the week

[miriam_e]

This came from the weekly newsletter of founder of Project Gutenberg, Michael Hart, in his notes on what the US news media aren't reporting:

"The price of a gallon of gas is $2.25, 11 times what it was when paperback books were also selling at $.25. This gets nearly daily major news coverage, yet prices for paperbacks are now $7.50, 30 times what they were when paperbacks and a gallon of gas were both $.25. Even coffee prices made the news recently, going up 28% since Christmas, but what they went up to was the price they have averaged for the past 20 years. Why is it that books can go up so much without any news coverage?"

Comments

[cloakedblayne.livejournal.com]

I'm curious though. Paperbacks are going up, Petrol is going up, house prices are going up as are the interest rates. Food produce and coffee is going up. Award wages are... well... staying the same.

My question is how long will it be before we can't afford anything. The idea saving for three months to by a book and read it while drinking a cup of coffee doesn't really appeal.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Thank heavens people share. Project Gutenberg currently shares more than 15,000 books. On the peer to peer programs you can get access to current bestsellers. In the strangely warped name of efficient economy most of us are being made poorer. Unfortunately those who are blindly pushing us toward this ideal don't stop to think about the buying power of a well-off population and how healthy that makes the economy.

Maybe they just think that with all our aspirations under threat we will vote for whoever they want us to. Well, it worked last election.