It's a good question to ask, but it ignores the benefits of electronic books. Imagine Abraham Lincoln, born in a log cabin, raised in poverty, being stymied in his early education by the lack of paper, a typewriter, or electric lights.

This ignores Project Gutenberg and many subsequent sources of free ebooks. I can load a beater laptop with years of reading material for nothing. This also sounds like it was written by someone that hasn't priced paper books - used or new - in a long time.