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Q20: Why are your products not free. Why do they cost so much?
On the issue of product costs, a number of forces are at work. There are a
variety of costs associated with any given product such as processing the data
into the appropriate form, developing documentation, reproduction,
sales/distribution, and customer support. How much of these costs we are
required to recover in the price of the product is determined by policies
passed down from above, from any level up to the White House. These policies
can vary from year-to-year and the cost of each product reflects the policy in
effect at the time that it was produced. In most cases we have been obliged
to recoup the reproduction/media costs and some portion of the development and
after-the-sale support costs.
As far as the philosophy on what should be free and what should not, there is
no single widely accepted view on what is correct. One argument made is that
citizens have already paid for these products with their taxes and they should
be free. Another point of view is that the general public shouldn't have to
subsidize products that only a very small minority of people have any interest
in - let them pay the full cost.
The prevailing climate these days seems to be to recoup more of the costs from
the individual users. In fact, a recent review of our pricing by a private
accounting firm coupled with an interpretation of various
regulations is directing us toward complete recovery
of all costs associated with each product through the price
of that product. In most cases this doesn't include the cost of collecting
the data or the basic processing since that is typically covered by a direct
appropriation or funds from another government agency. It generally means only
those costs incurred to produce a product for public distribution, sales costs,
and customer support.
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