High Cost of Textbooks

    It all goes back to the beginning of college. I had to be careful with my money or I wouldn't have enough money for textbooks. Some times I would have to decide between getting a full meal versus just getting an apple or no food at all. On top of tuition costs, my books could be as much as one of my classes. I find it difficult for someone to pay for rent, food, and bills without debt when tuition and textbooks cost so much. Which is a large reason why some people don't go to school in the first place.
   I have paid for school by working part time at minimum wage jobs and being unable to work more hours, which is why it is hard to pay for school and textbooks. Every term I was required to get the newest textbooks, which was hardly used since everything is on the internet. When I went to book buybacks, they wouldn't accept the books since there was already a new edition.
    Often times I find myself using the internet over textbooks since there is more information and examples on whatever I am interested in learning about. In my opinion books are slightly outdated, but they still can be useful. I believe that textbooks are outdated because they have few effective examples to interact with the reader and I find most to be dull to read. Videos are more useful than textbooks because you see someone go through the process to either solve a problem or explain a difficult concept. Another thing I find frustrating is the price of textbooks.
    Textbook cost have increased over the years and there is little reason for this in my opinion, other than to make more money. The same textbooks are are just re-printed over and over again and they just label them as a new edition. There is little information that changes in the textbooks, typically the only changes that are made are the questions or the order of the questions. Another question I have is why aren't there any e-textbook alternatives that we can use that cost less money and don't have to be carried around everywhere.
   It seems weird to me that the prices that books are listed at are regulated by the book companies. Shouldn't there be a committee of some sorts that looks to see if the information in the book has actually changed to constitute charging so much for books. One solution might be to have professors use older versions of the textbook or a PDF of the newest textbook. Perhaps teachers can't give out a copy of the book because they will get in trouble by their superiors, which makes me question how the hierarchy of our schooling system works.