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Should the United States Declare Books an ‘Essential Good’?

nytimes.com

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Re: Should the United States Declare Books an ‘Essential Good’?

#21

Post by seszett »

a3_nm wrote: post #16

To give some more information about the French perspective here: - No source is given for the claim that "The French government has declared books an 'essential good.'", I have been unable to find any French source about this, and I am entirely unaware of such a declaration. I would be interested if anyone could point me to more information about this. - There is a fixed price law on books, which to my knowledge has…

> No source is given for the claim that "The French government has declared books an 'essential good.'", I have been unable to find any French source about this, and I am entirely unaware of such a declaration. I would be interested if anyone could point me to more information about this.

VAT for books in France is 5,5%[0] which is also called the "reduced rate for first necessity products"[1].

It is the same rate as for food and water. Other cultural goods, transportation, fast-food and other products have a 10% rate, and the regular rate for all other non-special products is 20%.

[0] http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/professionnels-entreprise...

[1] http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxe_sur_la_valeur_ajout%C3%A9e...

Re: Should the United States Declare Books an ‘Essential Good’?

#22

Post by a3_nm »

seszett wrote: post #21
a3_nm wrote: post #16

To give some more information about the French perspective here: - No source is given for the claim that "The French government has declared books an 'essential good.'", I have been unable to find any French source about this, and I am entirely unaware of such a declaration. I would be interested if anyone could point me to more information about this. - There is a fixed price law on books, which to my knowledge has…

> No source is given for the claim that "The French government has declared books an 'essential good.'", I have been unable to find any French source about this, and I am entirely unaware of such a declaration. I would be interested if anyone could point me to more information about this. VAT for books in France is 5,5%[0] which is also called the "reduced rate for first necessity products"[1]. It is the same rate as…

The 5.5% rate applies, beyond books, to a bunch of other things which are hardly first necessity: e.g., theater, cinema, the importation of works of art and antiques. http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCodeArticle.do?idArticle...

The Wikipedia article you mention refers to the 5.5% rate as "common consumption, first necessity, or to favor certain sectors. I would think that books would rather fall in that last category.

Re: Should the United States Declare Books an ‘Essential Good’?

#23

Post by a3_nm »

icebraining wrote: post #19
a3_nm wrote: post #16

To give some more information about the French perspective here: - No source is given for the claim that "The French government has declared books an 'essential good.'", I have been unable to find any French source about this, and I am entirely unaware of such a declaration. I would be interested if anyone could point me to more information about this. - There is a fixed price law on books, which to my knowledge has…

the problem is that the role of booksellers, to select interesting books and guide you in your choice, is lost. Are booksellers in France really prepared to do that kind of guidance? To me that sounds like a romantic but unrealistic view, since it requires them to be both very well read and good judges of character. I've met people like that, but they're usually not interested in burning their life savings and losing…

It depends a lot where you go, and I'm not an expert in this either, but there are some libraries and bookshops in France which will advertise obscure books with a custom criticism handwritten by someone from the staff; or where you can pop in saying "I'm looking for a good textbook for a beginner-level Russian speaker who wishes to learn French" and get useful advice. It is, of course, marginal in volume compared to large chains, but it exists. (I wouldn't be able to say, however, if it is more common in France than elsewhere.)

(I am not especially familiar with it myself, but I would imagine that a good bookseller, or librarian, can be really important to people who are poorer, or less educated. If you want to read something or learn about something, it may be easier if you have someone to ask, rather than if you have just the Amazon website with a huge choice but no guidance.)

Re: Should the United States Declare Books an ‘Essential Good’?

#24

Post by twic »

seszett wrote: post #21
a3_nm wrote: post #16

To give some more information about the French perspective here: - No source is given for the claim that "The French government has declared books an 'essential good.'", I have been unable to find any French source about this, and I am entirely unaware of such a declaration. I would be interested if anyone could point me to more information about this. - There is a fixed price law on books, which to my knowledge has…

> No source is given for the claim that "The French government has declared books an 'essential good.'", I have been unable to find any French source about this, and I am entirely unaware of such a declaration. I would be interested if anyone could point me to more information about this. VAT for books in France is 5,5%[0] which is also called the "reduced rate for first necessity products"[1]. It is the same rate as…

For what it's worth, VAT on books in 0% in the UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-70110-...

Not because we're some sort of literary paradise, though. Probably some civil servant decided in the '50s that books were improving and zero-rated them, and now everyone would kick up a fuss if it changed.

Re: Should the United States Declare Books an ‘Essential Good’?

#25

Post by chestnut-tree »

rbehrends wrote: post #17
dkopi wrote: post #2

" At the same time, price discounts on books are limited to 5 percent and can’t be offered in conjunction with free shipping." They've recently just tried this law in Israel. The result? The printing of New books has screeched to a halt. When you can't offer discounts on new books, the publishers are only willing to take the chance on famous well established authors. The law is especially absurd, because even if you'…

This seems to be more a lesson in the difficulty of bottling a solution that works in one country and reusing it elsewhere. Because in France and Germany, the exact opposite happens: the profits of bestsellers are being used to cross-subsidize new books and new authors. This is in fact one of the rationales behind both countries having price-fixing laws: namely, to preserve the profit margin for bestsellers to make s…

"...the profits of bestsellers are being used to cross-subsidize new books and new authors"

The publishing market seems to vary quite a bit country-by-country judging by the comments here.

In the UK, we also had an agreement between publishers and booksellers called the Net Book Agreement [1] which set fixed book prices. The original defence of the agreement was that it subsidised important but less popular works. The Agreement was scrapped in 1997.

What effect did that have on the publishing market? For a start, discounts by online retailers and even supermarkets have altered people's expectations of book pricing. Most people simply don't expect to pay full price for new titles anymore. Many independent bookshops can't compete on price and have closed. However, the number (and variety) of books published hasn't declined - quite the opposite: new and revised titles have grown substantially according to the Guardian report below [2]. But some publishers feel there are too many titles being published and the volume isn't sustainable.

Books, magazines and newspapers are exempt from VAT in the UK. However, e-books are subject to full (UK) VAT rate of 20%.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Book_Agreement

[2] http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/22/uk-publishes-mo...

Re: Should the United States Declare Books an ‘Essential Good’?

#26

Post by NeverEnough »

jckt wrote: post #6
dkopi wrote: post #2

" At the same time, price discounts on books are limited to 5 percent and can’t be offered in conjunction with free shipping." They've recently just tried this law in Israel. The result? The printing of New books has screeched to a halt. When you can't offer discounts on new books, the publishers are only willing to take the chance on famous well established authors. The law is especially absurd, because even if you'…

While I am inclined to agree with you (government overreach? almost sounds like some form of censorship, as a law), I think it's fallacious to believe that new books have some intrinsic good. In fact, new books probably don't, if we take into account the vast number of them being written every year. And I do think that if someone has written something great, a discount is unlikely going to do it any real damage. The…

I believe they mean good as in a consumer good, not a moral good.

that is, how should this good be taxed, is it something essential like food that should carry a low tax rate?

Re: Should the United States Declare Books an ‘Essential Good’?

#27

Post by drivingmenuts »

WalterBright wrote: post #15

"Books have no privileged position in the American system of law and commerce. We, the workers of the book business — writers, agents, editors, designers, publicists, booksellers and others — often bemoan this fact. Books, it seems to us, are different. [...] Surely our industry deserves special treatment." Talk to any businessman. He'll say he believes in the free market, but his business is special and deserves spe…

If you have enough money, you can achieve the American dream of having your business receive special protection.

But there's no 5% discount on Congressmen.

Re: Should the United States Declare Books an ‘Essential Good’?

#28

Post by highCs »

a3_nm wrote: post #16

To give some more information about the French perspective here: - No source is given for the claim that "The French government has declared books an 'essential good.'", I have been unable to find any French source about this, and I am entirely unaware of such a declaration. I would be interested if anyone could point me to more information about this. - There is a fixed price law on books, which to my knowledge has…

> No source is given for the claim

Here you go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lang_Law

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