Price-Fixing for Ebooks? Really?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-cut-e-book-prices-104805832.html?l=1 

I don’t like government intervention into anything unless it’s absolutely necessary, so I’d have to say I disagree with this move. Frankly, it seems like there are a lot more important battles out there to be fought, and if not, they can lay off some bureaucrats and lower taxes accordingly. It would reduce the amount of pent-up government wanting to do what it does, specifically, apply force to make people and businesses change their behavior for noneconomic reasons…which usually means, for unreasons. But I digress.

I’d much rather see a market solution to the problem of excessive ebook pricing, and I think it’s already underway. People are actively looking for alternatives to expensive ebooks, looking for lower-priced similar material. And there’s alot of similar material. Given the amount of material out there at all, and the number of new self-publishing stars that are rising, it really seems unwise for traditional publishers to continue to insist on pricing ebooks higher than print books, even higher than hardbacks. But let the market handle it over the next couple of years.

I happen to prefer Amazon over the others, and I doubt I’ll be buying many ebooks through Apple, though anything’s possible. But this has nothing to do with team-picking and flag-waving. I just like their product and their pricing.