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Comment by MathMonkeyMan | Hacker News Reader

Problem: 15 year olds don't know how to read. Solution: Make books 25% cheaper.

Sure, it can't hurt, but are those kids or their parents gonna go out and buy books, and then, you know, learn how to read?

I wonder what the numbers are like in the US...

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This article[0], which covers the same but in Danish has more details. It mentions Sweden lowering their book VAT in 2001 to 6%. The takeaway was that more books were sold, but to people who were already buying books. Getting new readers thus requires an additional effort than merely lowering the cost.

[0] https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/politik/regeringen-vil-afskaffe-mo...

Back then there were only linear tv and no social media. I know in my social circles back then in Sweden it was even trendy to read and lots of discussions between friends and even during family events between the teenagers about books. So yes it was a totally different landscape back then.

>Make books 25% cheaper.

Nitpick, but it's actually only making books 20% cheaper; 100/125 = 0.8 (80%).

True, but also there is a commonly accepted rule in economics where taxing something disincentivizes consumption of that thing. Usually when you lift taxes on something you will see a rise in consumption on that thing. But it remains to be seen if the 15 year olds in this situation will be the ones to consume more of it.

Not good and not improving https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2024/federal-data-reading-...

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