# Is it considered impolite in the US to take a college course and buy the textbook elsewhere? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 2, 2010, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-considered-impolite-in-the-us-to-take-a-college-course-and-buy-the-textbook-elsewhere/552384 "2010-09-02T14:15:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-considered-impolite-in-the-us-to-take-a-college-course-and-buy-the-textbook-elsewhere/552384/61 "2010-09-03T14:12:17Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > > [@Voyager](#): > > > > Until Amazon came around campus bookstores had a near monopoly. They still have the great advantage of knowing which books are going to be used and the size of the market. If they can’t make money given that, they need to revise their business plan. > > College bookstores are starting to fight back against Amazon (& other online booksellers) – and not fairly, by competing on price or service. Instead they are trying to lock out the other booksellers, and put pressure on the instructors & students. > > A college professor friend mentioned these techniques by the college bookstore:[ul] > [li]Pressure on the instructor to NOT release the titles of textbooks until late (like only 10 days to a week before the first class). Short enough timeframe to make it difficult for an online order to arrive in time[/li][li]Pressure on the instructor to provide a pamphlet of specific notes, problems, etc., which are copied and sold only as a package with the textbook.[/li][li]Notifying the instructor that ‘since there are 24 students registered for your fall class, we have ordered 24 copies of the text’. And then complaining to the instructor if less than 24 are sold. Complaining to the Department Head about this, as if it were the instructor’s fault.[/li][li]Pushing instructors to choose textbooks that are NOT in the college library. And pushing the library to NOT purchase textbooks for the collection.[/li][/ul] And withholding scholarship or grant money until a later date, but allowing you to use it as credit at the campus bookstore. Especially at a school where most people are using Pell Grants. ETA of previous post: When I say “I am tempted,” I mean I was for a split second–you know, that time when your anger overclouds your judgment. Obviously doing that would be immoral. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-considered-impolite-in-the-us-to-take-a-college-course-and-buy-the-textbook-elsewhere/552384/62 "2010-09-03T14:34:34Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > There are a lot of things I could do that would not be against any rules, but hurt you. Let’s see–you have your email in your profile. That means I could spam your email box forever and make it totally useless. According to your logic, that would be completely moral. Heck, I’m very tempted, because apparently you missed the lesson that hurting other people for your own gain is wrong, and I would merely be inflicting social punishment. But I’m not that type of guy. > > Look, if you actually pay attention to what people label as evil, you’ll find that there’s a common theme–valuing your own happiness at the expense of others. That’s what you did here. Your defense is entirely that it helped you, and anyone else could have done it. (Again, anyone can do a lot of immoral things.) To be a moral act, you would need to explain how it helped others. Instead, you can’t even explain how it didn’t hurt. > > As for why others have more rights than you? BECAUSE THERE ARE MORE OF US, and thus each of our hurts add up to being more of yours. It’s not complicated–it’s something most people learn in kindergarten. If you are selfish and don’t share, you get shunned. > > Finally, I’ll point out that morality is a social construct, and the best response you’ve gotten is that what you did wasn’t so bad. That should tell you something. All this over some overdue library books? :rolleyes: An act is only moral if it helps others? :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: Others have more rights than me because there are more of them? :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: I missed the lesson that hurting others for your own gain is wrong? :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-considered-impolite-in-the-us-to-take-a-college-course-and-buy-the-textbook-elsewhere/552384/63 "2010-09-03T14:36:33Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > \*\*ecause apparently you missed the lesson that hurting other people for your own gain is wrong[.] I’m missing how he, himself, hurt others? > [@](#): > > To be a moral act, you would need to explain how it helped others. Instead, you can’t even explain how it didn’t hurt. But no one’s explained how it hurt. > [@](#): > > If you are selfish and don’t share, you get shunned. Sharing – specifically the sharing of books – is the base purpose of the library system. The book was shared out. There’s absolutely zero objective difference between the book being on loan to one person for nine weeks and being on loan for a week to each of nine different people. _Everyone else_ is going to be denied access to the book. If indeed the quantity of would-be borrowers exceeded the supply of the book, then there’s the problem. Luckily library users _know_ that the library is incapable of meeting the potential demand for every single book and periodical in their system, and so they have no automatic expectation that whatever they want will be there at any possible time that they’ll want it. Would you all still be upset if, for example, he went to all of the university bookstores and bought out all the remaining copies of the book in question instead? ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-considered-impolite-in-the-us-to-take-a-college-course-and-buy-the-textbook-elsewhere/552384/64 "2010-09-03T20:38:30Z")
I never heard of the ethos postulated in the OP. In Europe, from what I’ve seen, universities don’t usually have bookstores at all, and there are usually one or two large bookstores in a uni town that cater to students, and stock the textbooks they need. In the States, there’s more likely to be an on campus bookstore, usually run by the student union, but I never heard of anyone feeling obligated to buy their textbooks there. We didn’t have online shopping in my time, of course, but we could and did buy the books used. Even if this was still done at the on-campus store, it seems to amount to pretty much the same thing, in that it was a cheaper alternative to buying a brand new book. As for off-campus sources, for a long time the old Cambell’s Books in Westwood Village sold many of the textbooks needed by UCLA students. This would probably have been before the 1970s when Ackerman Union and the ASUCLA bookstore was expanded. I think Campbell’s closed around that time. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-considered-impolite-in-the-us-to-take-a-college-course-and-buy-the-textbook-elsewhere/552384/65 "2010-09-03T20:52:13Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > You were gaming the system at the expense of your fellow students. I’m all for gaming the system too but not at the expense of others. If you don’t see that, then I’m not going to be able to convince you. You seem to be getting a little defensive so you must think that there is a kernel of truth in what I am saying. The fine system of the library isn’t designed for your game and you took advantage of it. Congratulations. > . Gaming the system? I didn’t read anything about **Lonesome Polecat** withholding the book after someone attempted to recall it. If there was no one else who actually wanted the book, then what was the harm? I agree with returning books on time as a general principle, but obviously some situations call for a little flexibility. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-considered-impolite-in-the-us-to-take-a-college-course-and-buy-the-textbook-elsewhere/552384/66 "2010-09-03T20:55:41Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > We’re not going to agree on this. Such is life. I see your point but I don’t agree. Do you really and truly not understand mine? If you don’t understand my point then you are just being willfully stupid. It’s certainly reasonable to disagree with it though. As I read it, he merely disagrees with you, so it’s no occasion to call someone willfully stupid in IMHO, is it? No note and no warning issued, but just take an even strain. We hate to see threads about stuff like this explode into flaming matches. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-considered-impolite-in-the-us-to-take-a-college-course-and-buy-the-textbook-elsewhere/552384.md?page=3)