A chemistry textbook of mine was 600 USD- brand new because the version published that year was required.

That really stung.

Why doesn't students pull their funds for 1 book and then scan it and use that electronic copy? (and may be return/resell the physical book)?

That's not a bad plan from a cost perspective, though scanning a 200+ page textbook is reasonably complex, and very time consuming.

it's doable cuz most unis have nice scanning equipment u can use for free in the library. i have literally made over $1000 in a semester scanning a textbook nobody had PDFed and reselling it electronically. it wasn't even offered in digital format by the publisher.

I am in the stage below higher education (equivalent to SAT's), meaning most pupils don't have jobs or have only been in work for a few months (A National insurance number is given at 16 and is needed to enter work), we have 3 / 4 subjects on average and 2 books per subject which is about £420 in total, however the UK is pretty facilitating to low income households and provides them with grants to afford the costs, we do have a school library meaning we can take out books, but we have to return them within a short window of time and we cannot write on them which makes them redundant for some subjects.

Am a pretentious whiner?, Yes. Will I keep on pirating textbooks? Yes

RIP Liz Truss & the £