Racing Turtles

I dunno man. I found out today that a subway sandwich is $14 now. A shitty subway footlong sandwich that isn't actually 12 inches long and is occasionally made with expired ingredients and was never a great option to start with. I ate those in high school because I was broke and at the mall a lot.

There are poke bowls in my city from a local place for $16. Super fresh fish and veg, warm rice, more than I can eat in one sitting, for the price of a sandwich and a drink at america's most mid-tier sandwich shop.

Someone in another post said (paraphrased) you used to be able to get something mediocre for cheap, but now the mediocre things cost as much as the nice things so why would you?

This is me when I realized I could get a proper bowl of curry from the fancy indian food place for basically the same price as a fuckin McDonald's hamburger meal these days

I heard an ad the other day for a "fantastic deal! Four dollar four inch subway snack sandwich!" And like. I'm sure that would seem like a much better deal I'd I wasn't one of the ones who grew up with obnoxious "five dollar foot long subway sandwich" ads.

A dollar an inch of sandwich. When it used to be 2.4 inches. 240% markup is GOOD? Fucking bite me

Yeah with fast food having delusions of grandeur these days it's really made me appreciate the non-chain food places in my area. The other day I went to the local Hawaiian BBQ place and discovered that they have teriyaki chicken AND Beef BBQ musubi for 3.99. and they come in pairs. PAIRS.

I KNOW.

So I immediately bought an order of each and had 4 delicious musubi and a drink for less than a combo at Burger King.

So yeah, show em we don't need their shit sandwiches.

I dunno man. I found out today that a subway sandwich is $14 now. A shitty subway footlong sandwich that isn't actually 12 inches long and is occasionally made with expired ingredients and was never a great option to start with. I ate those in high school because I was broke and at the mall a lot.

There are poke bowls in my city from a local place for $16. Super fresh fish and veg, warm rice, more than I can eat in one sitting, for the price of a sandwich and a drink at america's most mid-tier sandwich shop.

Someone in another post said (paraphrased) you used to be able to get something mediocre for cheap, but now the mediocre things cost as much as the nice things so why would you?

Attempting to lower the price of the TTOU books (Amazon AU are trying to charge SEVENTY AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS for a PAPERBACK) by looking into buying author copies and selling them direct. Checking out international shipping costs.

Hmm yeah this isn't going to solve anything. I know the companies I buy shit from overseas aren't paying these prices. Do they have a Secret Business Discount or what?

Have any other indie authors found themselves in this position. Do you have a way to make these books affordable. Tell Me Your Secrets.

I am. Attempting something silly.

If it’s available through Ingram you want to talk to a local book store and see what it would cost them to get a physical copy, or even multiple physical copies. Going through Amazon is almost 100% going to be the wrong option in this case, I suspect.

I could be wrong! But that’s where I’d start.

And individuals should be able to do this. They should be able to go to physical bookstores and say “I want this book and it costs way too much internationally on Amazon, I hear it’s available through Ingram, do you guys order from Ingram and can you look into how much it would cost you to get it in?”

And if they live in Australia add “it’s by an Australian author!” and the book store might even order multiple copies to have on the shelves.

People have been ordering through their local bookshops but not everyone has a local bookshop so I'm looking into cheaper online options as well.

I have attempted the Something Silly and am trying a limited run direct from the printer via my ko-fi shop.

I don't know if $35 is a reasonable price, but if people can wait until the end of September, they can get it from bookshop.org. That appears to be about 20 Australian dollars cheaper. (No idea what shipping would be.)

^ For those interested!

Yeah the ebooks are on ko-fi now also. Might as well, right.

Admittedly, when I first saw this headline, my immediate thought was, "yeah, no shit," but it's good to have studies giving hard numbers. It also makes me feel a little better, weirdly, because at least our struggles with rent aren't just because we suck at money or something. It's the system, not the individual.

ok I got into an argument with someone in my media class yesterday so I’m just gonna say it:

No video game should cost $70.

I’m sure the new Zelda game will be great, but no video game should cost $70. “But if you adjust for inflation, this is actually less than what the Wii games were,” cool. No video game should cost $70.

We no longer live in a world where a kid could save up their allowance for a couple months and then be able to buy a video game. Just buying one has somehow turned into such a grandiose adventure it takes all of the fun out of getting a new game.

The only possible benefit might be that, with games being so expensive, people might be more likely to pick up an indie game because those companies can’t afford to sell those games for a lot.

This is becoming normal. I used to be able to buy four ds games for $70. What the hell.

And you know damn well that Nintendo can afford it.

the federal minimum wage here is still 7.50$ and that’s before taxes kick in. that’s not ten hours of work that’s more like fifteen or even twenty hours of work. and if you’re making minimum wage you probably need every penny for food and rent.

forget kids being able to save up for a game on their allowance: millions of teens and adults with jobs can’t even do that anymore!

wealthy people in the global north will get like irrationally angry at the idea of people in the global south pirating their work but they don't offer sliding scale prices nor price their work differently in different countries to reflect local currencies like of course people will pirate your work, it's their only option. like a book that costs $25 USD costs 110 malaysian ringgit plus import charges, and more if you have to ship it from abroad. 110 ringgit to malaysians is just like spending $110 dollars in the US, but in a country with a national minimum wage of what amounts to $341 USD a month. and this is only one country, like be fucking for real.

I guess this was just a vent post but it's really weird seeing folks like op desperately seeking validation for stealing from other poor people. I'm not going to go into why authors already get screwed over (and how little control they have over pricing) as it's been said more elegantly by those with firsthand experience.

I don't expect people to stop stealing but I do wish they'd stop asking for acceptance of it

ETA: you could have made this post about SO many things that are morally fine to pirate because the creators have already been paid and you chose books? BOOKS?!

1. did you miss that the first 2 words of this post are "wealthy people" specifically

2. are you from the global south?

3. your tags suggesting ebooks as an alternative really show how little understanding you have about basic economics and how stupid you think people in the global south are. if an ebook costs $20 USD that is still RM 88, which for a malaysian is exactly like an american paying 88 dollars for something. the prices are not scaled, so no, buying an ebook is not magically the solution. yes, this is about books, but also any kind of media that is out there.

4. if someone could never ever have afforded to pay for something in the first place, you have not lost money from them pirating that something. if an author is poor, the problem is not poor people pirating their media but that they aren't being adequately paid for their labour by their publishing house, on top of other fundamental failures of the capitalist system in which they live. the same failures of a system that results in people in the global south as well as poor people in the global north being unable to afford basic forms of entertainment media. "pirates" are not the enemy of a creator who is struggling; it's the system itself for creating and requiring poverty in the first place, as well as for perpetuating and benefiting from systemic inequalities between the global north & south. please get a grip

i don’t think any medication at all especially not ones to manage chronic conditions should be more than like $2. but that makes me insane i guess

“no see they HAVE to cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars” here’s the thing: they literally do not. just stop it. It’s that easy. i don’t give a fuck about the logistics

See, I do give a fuck about the logistics, and you're still right. A lot, and I mean a shit-ton, of the research and development for modern medicine is paid for by the government. Your tax dollars pay to make these medicines and then are handed over to pharmaceutical companies with no price controls that reflect the public investment that already went into them.

Health care is a right and all levels of it should be controlled by the public, for the public.

before you see something and recoil at the price, be it handmade items, services, art, whatever. when you see something and you think, "i wouldnt pay more than $15 for that," you seriously have to ask yourself: if i were offered that same $15, would i make this object? would i spend the time to teach myself this skill to get this done, for $15? would i do this service for that same $15? would that be worth my time and effort?

yeah, that handmade necklace is $140. you might only be willing to pay $40 for that same necklace, but would you make it for $40 if someone asked you to?

you want to pay the babysitter fifteen bucks for the three hours she's watching your child. but would you honestly do that for $15? would you go into a stranger's house and change their baby's diaper and care for its needs, for $15?

you think its ridiculous that this artist is charging $30 for an icon commission. would you spend years catching up to their skill level to make that same drawing, start using your skill to make some extra cash, and then spend three hours on a drawing just to get $15?

would you be willing to work for $5 an hour?

no?

then don't be angry when someone else won't.

you don't have buy the service, it's okay if some things aren't within your budget or comfort zone, and it's also okay if the product isn't worth that much money to you. but do not be angry. be glad, because you know of another person out there who isn't being exploited for their time.

I feel like our economy has been driven by mass production for so long that we’ve forgotten just how intensely time-consuming making things by hand is. Mass production was revolutionary for a reason. It DRASTICALLY reduced the cost of things. And I’m all for making things more affordable! But the problem arises when people decide they want something handmade for the cost of something mass produced. People get an idea in their mind “this is how much x item should cost” when in actuality that’s how much a machine made version of that thing costs. Then they hear the price of something made entirely by hand and think “that person is ripping me off.” If you want something handmade, you have to compensate the person making it fairly.