One key cause of piracy left out of this analysis is the significant demographic of people who have internet but can’t buy things over it. This usually describes teenagers in developed countries who have internet access, but don’t have capital that they can freely spend on digitally purchased objects. The amount of young adults who actually have jobs is really falling in developed countries because of the promotion of internships and volunteering opportunities, which are easier to obtain than jobs and have equal or greater prestige. Even if they do have income, they may not possess credit cards. There’s a good portion of this group that can’t even drive to purchase things with cash. So every new possession they obtain by spending money, or rather getting an adult to spend/provide/transfer money, is a significant expenditure.
In this situation, knowledge becomes something it seems irrational to pay for, because it seems like it “should” be liberated. They might acknowledge that being able to understand physics better or win arguments has a value of $20 or $50, but they won’t spend that when they could get a comparable result with an expenditure of time, even if said time is worth more than the money would be.
Right—knowledge is worth paying for, but not all knowledge is worth the asking price, especially when the asking price is out of your reach in any case.
If I’m working two or three minimum-wage part-time jobs just to break even, the face price of a $100 textbook is effectively inflated against the index of how much I need that money for other things. The consequences of buying it aren’t necessarily just being 100 dollars the poorer; that may be an electrical bill going unpaid; it might be two weeks of groceries I won’t be able to buy. (Don’t scoff at the inefficiency of working so many low-wage jobs; for a lot of real people in the US and Europe there is no other choice!)
If you have your basic survival needs met but little or no capital income (many teenagers and young adults) then almost any asking price is too high to consider. You couldn’t pay it in any case. Exhortations to “get a job” or “save up” won’t make it more viable to try and get a job, or save up—you are working from a position of negligible expendable capital.
In my case, I make a paltry income thanks to the welfare system in my country, and am able to set aside a little disposable income (where “disposable” still includes necessities like clothing, medicine, and other obligatory expenses I don’t have the money to just toss into my regular budget). In a good month, my medical expenses are low, I don’t need new clothes, and there’s nothing else I need for something but could, technically, live without. Paying for knowledge is sometimes viable, but the vast majority of the time I’m still better served by getting it for free if possible, or by direct interaction with someone I know who has that knowledge (thus “spending” my time, and any necessary social capital, which is a whole lot easier to come by than money, even for my autistic self...)
An asking price I can’t pay might as well be an overinflated one, from my standpoint.
The point isn’t “a credit card”, the point is “any means of making digital purchases”, which pretty much translates to “a credit card”. A non-trivial problem in the situation I describe.
Actually, from what I have seen, sellers have been very eager to eliminate this problem. In many of the stores near where I live, you can buy gift cards for various online sellers in addition to brick-and-mortar ones. For example, in my nearby grocery store, we have Amazon gift cards, Kindle gift cards, Ebay gift cards, and just the other day I saw one entire side of a gift card rack decked out in Facebook gift cards. Though Barnes and Noble and Best Buy both have brick and mortar stores, their gift cards allow you to purchase at either the store or the website.
I don’t know how many other places have this kind of availability, but if you can buy a $10, $25, $50, or $100 gift card for an online store, that opens up a variety of possibilities for online purchasing. Especially if, like Amazon, the vendor allows you to use more than one of their gift cards. Of course, this approach does seem to limit you to larger companies, but still allows a variety of web purchases.
Also, online purchases from any vendor are possible for young adults who have a debit card with a credit card logo, though some may not prefer to make purchases this way.
The easiest debit cards to obtain, especially for younger people who don’t have a credit rating, are generally linked to a bank account—I had one such at eleven, although I understand that’s unusually young. Use that card to make purchases and you’re essentially giving out a handle to that account, with obvious implications for fraud. My understanding is that recouping fraudulent withdrawals from a bank can be harder than doing the same for a credit line under some circumstances, and account balances are often higher than credit limits—though probably not for teenagers.
Ah! I see. Thankfully it’s the norm here in Australia that the card issuer is mostly responsible for card fraud and they are decently vigilant about it (me being in the reference class of “buys things online”, I have twice been called by my bank to inform me that my card has been blocked due to suspicious charges which were reversed upon me confirming I did not make those purchases). Judging from my parents’ experience with recouping credit fraud, the procedure is exactly the same. Thanks for taking the time to explain.
Yes, that’s what I was referring to. I use my debit card for online purchases, but I am selective about doing this, since I like to avoid fraud. I have had an experience with fraud before which was more time consuming than what you described (with a significant amount of paperwork), but did result in the bank returning the money to me. As a result of the unpleasantness of this experience, I tend to be reluctant to buy from sites I don’t clearly recognize as legitimate.
This is not a strictly online concern for me, though. I also make much fewer debit card purchases at stores nowadays and don’t use it at all at restaurants.
I would probably feel similar even if I had a credit card instead since I found the first experience so unpleasant.
One key cause of piracy left out of this analysis is the significant demographic of people who have internet but can’t buy things over it. This usually describes teenagers in developed countries who have internet access, but don’t have capital that they can freely spend on digitally purchased objects. The amount of young adults who actually have jobs is really falling in developed countries because of the promotion of internships and volunteering opportunities, which are easier to obtain than jobs and have equal or greater prestige. Even if they do have income, they may not possess credit cards. There’s a good portion of this group that can’t even drive to purchase things with cash. So every new possession they obtain by spending money, or rather getting an adult to spend/provide/transfer money, is a significant expenditure.
In this situation, knowledge becomes something it seems irrational to pay for, because it seems like it “should” be liberated. They might acknowledge that being able to understand physics better or win arguments has a value of $20 or $50, but they won’t spend that when they could get a comparable result with an expenditure of time, even if said time is worth more than the money would be.
“Your time isn’t worth minimum wage when you don’t have a minimum wage job”...
Right—knowledge is worth paying for, but not all knowledge is worth the asking price, especially when the asking price is out of your reach in any case.
If I’m working two or three minimum-wage part-time jobs just to break even, the face price of a $100 textbook is effectively inflated against the index of how much I need that money for other things. The consequences of buying it aren’t necessarily just being 100 dollars the poorer; that may be an electrical bill going unpaid; it might be two weeks of groceries I won’t be able to buy. (Don’t scoff at the inefficiency of working so many low-wage jobs; for a lot of real people in the US and Europe there is no other choice!)
If you have your basic survival needs met but little or no capital income (many teenagers and young adults) then almost any asking price is too high to consider. You couldn’t pay it in any case. Exhortations to “get a job” or “save up” won’t make it more viable to try and get a job, or save up—you are working from a position of negligible expendable capital.
In my case, I make a paltry income thanks to the welfare system in my country, and am able to set aside a little disposable income (where “disposable” still includes necessities like clothing, medicine, and other obligatory expenses I don’t have the money to just toss into my regular budget). In a good month, my medical expenses are low, I don’t need new clothes, and there’s nothing else I need for something but could, technically, live without. Paying for knowledge is sometimes viable, but the vast majority of the time I’m still better served by getting it for free if possible, or by direct interaction with someone I know who has that knowledge (thus “spending” my time, and any necessary social capital, which is a whole lot easier to come by than money, even for my autistic self...)
An asking price I can’t pay might as well be an overinflated one, from my standpoint.
Trivial inconvenience, the oxymoron.
The point isn’t “a credit card”, the point is “any means of making digital purchases”, which pretty much translates to “a credit card”. A non-trivial problem in the situation I describe.
Actually, from what I have seen, sellers have been very eager to eliminate this problem. In many of the stores near where I live, you can buy gift cards for various online sellers in addition to brick-and-mortar ones. For example, in my nearby grocery store, we have Amazon gift cards, Kindle gift cards, Ebay gift cards, and just the other day I saw one entire side of a gift card rack decked out in Facebook gift cards. Though Barnes and Noble and Best Buy both have brick and mortar stores, their gift cards allow you to purchase at either the store or the website.
I don’t know how many other places have this kind of availability, but if you can buy a $10, $25, $50, or $100 gift card for an online store, that opens up a variety of possibilities for online purchasing. Especially if, like Amazon, the vendor allows you to use more than one of their gift cards. Of course, this approach does seem to limit you to larger companies, but still allows a variety of web purchases.
Also, online purchases from any vendor are possible for young adults who have a debit card with a credit card logo, though some may not prefer to make purchases this way.
Could you elaborate? I’m currently doing this, and I saw no downsides, but that comment makes it look like there might be good reasons not to.
The easiest debit cards to obtain, especially for younger people who don’t have a credit rating, are generally linked to a bank account—I had one such at eleven, although I understand that’s unusually young. Use that card to make purchases and you’re essentially giving out a handle to that account, with obvious implications for fraud. My understanding is that recouping fraudulent withdrawals from a bank can be harder than doing the same for a credit line under some circumstances, and account balances are often higher than credit limits—though probably not for teenagers.
Ah! I see. Thankfully it’s the norm here in Australia that the card issuer is mostly responsible for card fraud and they are decently vigilant about it (me being in the reference class of “buys things online”, I have twice been called by my bank to inform me that my card has been blocked due to suspicious charges which were reversed upon me confirming I did not make those purchases). Judging from my parents’ experience with recouping credit fraud, the procedure is exactly the same. Thanks for taking the time to explain.
I have a debit card which notifies me with a text message to my phone every time I make a purchase.
I’m jealous of this. I wish more banks and credit card issuers provided this feature.
Yes. When I discovered that, I was surprised that such a simple solution to the problem of card fraud existed but was not widely implemented.
!! This is a really, really good idea.
Yes, that’s what I was referring to. I use my debit card for online purchases, but I am selective about doing this, since I like to avoid fraud. I have had an experience with fraud before which was more time consuming than what you described (with a significant amount of paperwork), but did result in the bank returning the money to me. As a result of the unpleasantness of this experience, I tend to be reluctant to buy from sites I don’t clearly recognize as legitimate.
This is not a strictly online concern for me, though. I also make much fewer debit card purchases at stores nowadays and don’t use it at all at restaurants.
I would probably feel similar even if I had a credit card instead since I found the first experience so unpleasant.
Debit cards can make digital purchases almost everywhere credit cards can, and they are relatively trivial to get.
But having no money on the debit card, or being unwilling to spend that money because you’re saving for college, isn’t trivial.
But then that’s not an issue specific to digital purchases...