Obama on a college textbook 'racket'

Is Obama the American Mandela? Obama brings a message of hope and change to a country at the crossroads. It is choice between the past and the future. But is Obama the American Mandela who could inspire Americans to a better future at home? And a future where America takes it rightful place at the global table? Is he the one? The question of whether Obama is the American Mandela is discussed in my blog Angry African on the Loose at http://angryafrican.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/is-obama-the-american-mandela/

Gee, give the man a break. You want him to build Rome in a day? Why hasn't anyone else (like our current president who's been in office nearly 8 years?) proposed any government policy changes to address the issue? Maybe Obama will. Has Hillary? She's 60, Obama's 46, he'll get there.

The courageous BOb leaves unnamed those who engage in this scam and once again the only solution thought up is a governmental one.
No sense upsetting a law professor friend just to help a bunch of students. Does he HOPE this will CHANGE because of others actions?

Obama is right on! Professors have been getting away with this for years, requiring students to buy THEIR textbooks to further line their pockets. Now he can turn his attention to the general universities' practice of requiring full professors to teach only three hours A WEEK or sometimes not at all, while student tuitions rise to $50,000 in some cases to pay for classes taught by grad assistants. Read the book, "Prof Scam," that has been on the shelves for some years but is still accurate. Only now it should read, "University Scam."

If we want to put a minority in the White House to affect equal opportunity in a very diverse nation, then let us place someone who has a track record of doing so. If you tell me you are from Chy-S.Side, Cleveland, Bronx, Brooklyn, Phili, or any other economically depressed region of our country, and you rose to attend a great university where you further this opportunity for others like you, you have my respect. If after college and graduate work, you made substantial contribution to less fortunate, who cannot better their own substandard living, you have my respect. If you raised funds and supported programs for Job Corps AND grants for minorities to attend college as the Clinton administration did (and Bush cut) , you have my admiration. Obama is NOT this person. Having worked with college students from under represented ethnic and economic groups at an Ivy League, I had the privilege to see the effectiveness of the Clinton policies. You don't have to come from an old Mayflower family to lead our country, but you have to inherit the fundamental principal of being American, which is roll-up-your-sleeve hard work to make this great nation run well with everyone running. We are better off electing the CEO of Merrill Lynch who is a better embodiment of this than Obama. Clinton although not Black has the heart to create equal opportunities in education and healthcare for those who cannot improve their situations by themselves. Clinton administration has done and WILL DO just that.

Congratulations to the people of America; welcome Bush for another 8 years

You can also buy textbooks through a price comparison site like www.cheapesttextbooks.com they show you who has the cheapest price!

I taught at the college level for over 35 years and I agree with Obama completely. Book salesmen doled out texts like lollipops, hoping we would require them in our classes. I finally refused the "freebies," realizing they were driving up the costs for students. Also, I found that -- at least in the fields of literature and composition -- the nontext books available in regular bookstores were written twice as well and were one quarter the price! Yes, textbooks are a racket! Go, Obama, Go!!!

It is time somebody shined a light into this dirty littlwe scholastic corner. Student loans, textbooks, outrageously inflated tuition leading to an overprivileged elite that will drag this country down into the dirt. Too many vultures for the existing roadkill. Take my advice, learn Chinese or Indian.

I tend to agree with "Retired Professor" who complains about textbook salesmen. Most faculty are NOT writing textbooks, assigning them in class and getting royalties (surely Obama knows University of Chicago law profs are not your average profs!). The problem lays more with the book publishers. Students and faculty are mounting a campaign to raise people's consciousness about other options. Go to www.maketextbooksaffordable.com. for more about this PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) effort.

Have u try the online bookstore Cocomartini.com
http://www.cocomartini.com

I get all my textbooks for this semester from this bookstore. All are brand new textbooks and half price discount textbooks and cheap textbooks.

Good luck and wish some help.

hehe ^_^

Obama is off point here. The racket is about the publishers and the high prices they charge for their books. Writers are at the bottom of the barrel of this profit-making mixture, and they do not end up with much money from the sales of their books. Trust me on this. The publisher makes out like a bandit.

Obama should know about textbook royalties as an author of a bookhimself. The typical royalty is 15% less expenses. The author does not "make a mint" unless there is a special deal (I wonder what Obama's royalty is?...). And seriously, if you were a prof, would you pick somebody else's book over your own?