THe stores are only making a couple of dollars on the cd. You have to factor in the cost of the goods/raw materials to make the cd and the equipment, the cost of packaging the cd, the cost of shipping the cd, the cost of advertising. I know there is much more to look at factoring in the cost, but I am not an economic type person. They would be able to tell you more details about. The cost is always passed back to the consumer.
You're missing a few things as to why the cost of CD's are so high. All the stores wrap the cost of doing business in the goods they sell. The companies have employees to pay, the cost of running and maintaining the physical structure (such as the electric bill), and employee benefits just to name a few. Where do the stores get the money to pay for these things? From the sales of goods at a profit. The income has to at least meet the expenditures. The price of CD's are high because everyone who was involved in producing the CD wants a cut of the pie.
This all goes back to the old mentality of "cheaper, better, faster" that NASA used under the Golden administration. Well, they got the faster and cheaper parts right. Becasue of the rush to complete missions, many details were often overlooked. I had a brief tenrure at Langley in VA ond got to listen to several lectures relating to the Mars missions and how they were adversely affected by the "cheaper better faster" approach. Basically they got the cheaper and faster, but forgot entirely about the better.
It is also related to as to the demise of the space shuttle replacement, the X-33/X-34. That project was not cheap, already putting in over a billion dollars (if I remember correctly) in R&D. There was an actual protoype at Langley that one of my colleagues worked with. Was this a better solution to the current space shuttle? Quite possibly, but we will never know because of the monetary monstrosity the system became. (Don't even get me started on how much it cost to get a new pc connected to the main network...the IT department charged $500/per connection for them to run a patch cable from the router/seitch/etc to the new pc. Absolutely ridiculous!)
"A company with 40 billion in cash and a 20 billion/year business doesn't write 2 page strategy documents."
Actually that is not 100% true. Experience has shown that anything over two pages, management will not read. If you can't get to the point, they don't listen.
It becomes a problem if companies such as those in the insurance business get ahold of your data. They could quite possibly decide to cancel and/or deny you coverage because of diseases they may find in your DNA mapping. (I could be wrong, but I do beleive that there have already been instances of that.)
One of the main reasons faster hardware is coming out is an attempt for the company to make more money, as there is always those out there who want the "biggest and fastest" just because they can. It is also interesting to note is that companies keep on developing faster hardware, yet the software industry is not able to keep up with this due to the time it takes to develop software. By the time software has been developed, faster hardware has rendered the software obsolete.
In addition to what you have mentioned, it is imprtant to note that ham radio also provides an excellent form of education. From electronic theory and practice to computer related topics, there is a wealth of knowledge available for many topics.
Ham radio is also used in the public school system as a means of teaching. Programs such as Sarex provide students with the chance to talk to astronauts while they are in space. Once again this is a great opportunity to teach the student about ham radio as well as broader topics, such as other cultures.
As we lose more and more of our amateur spectrum to commercialization, we will be losing many of the benefits that amateur radio provides.
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THe stores are only making a couple of dollars on the cd. You have to factor in the cost of the goods/raw materials to make the cd and the equipment, the cost of packaging the cd, the cost of shipping the cd, the cost of advertising. I know there is much more to look at factoring in the cost, but I am not an economic type person. They would be able to tell you more details about. The cost is always passed back to the consumer.
You're missing a few things as to why the cost of CD's are so high. All the stores wrap the cost of doing business in the goods they sell. The companies have employees to pay, the cost of running and maintaining the physical structure (such as the electric bill), and employee benefits just to name a few. Where do the stores get the money to pay for these things? From the sales of goods at a profit. The income has to at least meet the expenditures. The price of CD's are high because everyone who was involved in producing the CD wants a cut of the pie.
This all goes back to the old mentality of "cheaper, better, faster" that NASA used under the Golden administration. Well, they got the faster and cheaper parts right. Becasue of the rush to complete missions, many details were often overlooked. I had a brief tenrure at Langley in VA ond got to listen to several lectures relating to the Mars missions and how they were adversely affected by the "cheaper better faster" approach. Basically they got the cheaper and faster, but forgot entirely about the better.
It is also related to as to the demise of the space shuttle replacement, the X-33/X-34. That project was not cheap, already putting in over a billion dollars (if I remember correctly) in R&D. There was an actual protoype at Langley that one of my colleagues worked with. Was this a better solution to the current space shuttle? Quite possibly, but we will never know because of the monetary monstrosity the system became. (Don't even get me started on how much it cost to get a new pc connected to the main network...the IT department charged $500/per connection for them to run a patch cable from the router/seitch/etc to the new pc. Absolutely ridiculous!)
"A company with 40 billion in cash and a 20 billion/year business doesn't write 2 page strategy documents."
Actually that is not 100% true. Experience has shown that anything over two pages, management will not read. If you can't get to the point, they don't listen.
It becomes a problem if companies such as those in the insurance business get ahold of your data. They could quite possibly decide to cancel and/or deny you coverage because of diseases they may find in your DNA mapping. (I could be wrong, but I do beleive that there have already been instances of that.)
One of the main reasons faster hardware is coming out is an attempt for the company to make more money, as there is always those out there who want the "biggest and fastest" just because they can. It is also interesting to note is that companies keep on developing faster hardware, yet the software industry is not able to keep up with this due to the time it takes to develop software. By the time software has been developed, faster hardware has rendered the software obsolete.
In addition to what you have mentioned, it is imprtant to note that ham radio also provides an excellent form of education. From electronic theory and practice to computer related topics, there is a wealth of knowledge available for many topics. Ham radio is also used in the public school system as a means of teaching. Programs such as Sarex provide students with the chance to talk to astronauts while they are in space. Once again this is a great opportunity to teach the student about ham radio as well as broader topics, such as other cultures. As we lose more and more of our amateur spectrum to commercialization, we will be losing many of the benefits that amateur radio provides.