"8 X 10 Glossies for $15 a piece"
Of course that is expensive. However, consider:
-- no member of the public would buy these photos. They would have no reason to. And they don't!
-- devotees do, however, but not in any huge quantities.
Maybe a picture every couple of years.
-- because of the volume being small, the pictures are
hand printed, on demand, by a devotee whose main day-to- day activity is maintaining a constantly changing photo archive of many tens of thousands of photographs. For this roughly half-time work they receive approximately $400 monthly.
The sale of photographs enables this department to exist!
This one person "department" gets $7.50 per photo and the balance, less credit card discounts goes to the
"Adidam Emporium" which uses the proceeds to:
a) pay staff at the same modest level as above
b) maintain premises and a warehouse
c) generate and maintain a website
b) support the publication of books and other materials
Of course you can argue that the photographs should sell for
$10, or $5, or $2! And probably, with volume, they could.
But the volume is not there, and this is an activity that funds something else, also. You may argue also that it shouldn't. But it does.
Nobody is asking you to buy $15 photographs. The fact that some other people are willing to pay $15 (for reasons you do not understand) might amaze you, and cause you to consider them stupid mindless fools, but everybody's
"flash-points" of reactivity are different.
Yesterday I sent you a book (cover price $4.95), plus
$1.62 postage and envelope at MY personal expense. Nobody will compensate me for that. Why would I do that? Simply because this Path is profoundly important to me, and I am willing to tell others about it.
You can call me a fool if you want. That is your prerogative. You can also argue all you want about whether this picture matches how things should be. I am just telling you how things are.
If you don't want to read the book, fine. I am not twisting your arm. Pass it on to somebody else who might enjoy it or throw it in the garbage. Your call!
Namaste!
Jim |
