3.881 complaints about $$$ (39)
Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Fri, 22 Dec 89 19:15:37 EST
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 881. Friday, 22 Dec 1989.
Date: 21 December 1989 08:01:16 CST
From: "M. R. Sperberg-McQueen " <U15440@UICVM>
Subject: The cost of the MLA bibliography
I'm getting a bit tired of people complaining that things
cost money. Most recently A10PR1@NIU implied that the prices
of MLA publications provided circumstantial evidence that
the MLA was taking advantage of its members. In the past,
products such as NotaBene have been held up as examples of
over-pricing.
What era do these people live in? You can't buy a cup of
coffee for a nickel any more and the hourly wage is no
longer 40 cents. A first class letter no longer costs 3
cents.
I hate to break it to these folks, but paper costs money.
Ink costs money. Mylar costs money. Office space costs
money. Etc. (sic) The people at Nota Bene and at the MLA
could work for free, I suppose.
Why do some people assume that anything they can't easily
afford is proof that the person offering the product is not
only greedy but probably also dishonest? Why are some
people so reluctant to pay for the cost of materials &
overhead and to reimburse for time and to reward
intellectual effort?
--Marian Sperberg-McQueen
University of Illinois at Chicago