For me libraries vary substantially. My local library in the burbs was nice, but they decided to close every Sunday and only open from 12-5 on Saturday. And oddly, 4 libraries about 10 miles apart from each other all closed after a storm due to rain damage. Even though they are different buildings build many years apart in different styles. It seems odd they wild all have water damage.

And while they are closed to the public, the employees are still working, they are just working from home. Every week. So their plan is to have remote workers doing library work on Sunday.

But when they are open, they are very nice places.

But drive 30 minutes into the major city and it’s not a nice place. There are many homeless inside so it is messy and not a very safe place, if you don’t want someone yelling at your kid.

I think it’s appropriate to use our own experiences with libraries to form judgements.

I’m glad you (and I) have good experiences, but should we extrapolate our experiences into universal ones? What makes you think all libraries are great like yours?

> should we extrapolate our experiences into universal ones? What makes you think all libraries are great like yours?

I’m specifically saying we should not do that!

The OP asked for examples of competent public spending. I consider my local library to be one such example. Someone else’s library being awful doesn’t make mine an invalid example of competent spending, they’re two separate things.

But then you shouldn’t extrapolate your local library spending well any more than you don’t want GP extrapolating that his local library spends poorly.

What makes you think all libraries are run as well as yours? It seems the question is “does government do well, in general, at managing money?” And having an example of your local library isn’t very helpful for predicting whether government is good or bad.

I don’t think the sentiment is “every single government in existence is horrible at managing money” and more so “in general, government is inefficient at management so is not a good investment for optimal social benefit.”

> What makes you think all libraries are run as well as yours?

I feel like I’m going crazy, I’ve said two times that I don’t think we should be talking in universalities.

Statement #1: my local library is great and is an effective use of public funds

Statement #2: my local library is awful and a waste of public money

Both of these statements can be true and neither contradicts the other. There is no need to come to some universal conclusion here.

The broader point is that you often see this approach taken when talking about public spending: one example of waste somehow invalidates the whole concept. Yet you never see someone say “invest in a private company? Did you not see what happened with Enron?!”

My library has fricken 3d printers. It's quite obvious that guys' politics. "All taxes are theft" isn't the mature political position he believes it is... He was never serious lol. "Get rid of all taxes except road maintence and reduce everyone's taxes by 20%"