As per tools, you benefit from having a community that doesn’t needlessly spend on tool duplication or rental, which ultimately concentrates local wealth. But that’s an economic argument when the real one is that it’s a desirable service for cost, convenience and community spirit.
The discoverability of new books is excellent, librarians routinely make a selection of books on some topics, it may be a generic one "history", specific one "important people in history" which are way better than any other system that tries to recommend me books
Last, but not least, libraries are on of the few remaining places "for the people, by the people". You're not expected to pay anything, you can walk in any, take a book, read it, sit down and relax. It's also a place where a lot of students can go to study in silence, I can't think of many other places which offer a similar quietitude.
It would be a disservice to reduce libraries to "places where you can read Taylor swift books" (not that there's anything wrong with reading Taylor swift or Spare), losing libraries would mean loosing one of the remaining "third places" we have in our always more disconnect society
Lol, roads. Taxes should only cover public walkways and public transit between walkable areas.
And I'm not even sure about sidewalks. First, they require roads, and we already tossed those. I mean sure, we all use roads, but do we really all benefit equally from every road? I've never even driven on half the streets in my town, but my tax dollars still pay for their upkeep. It's madness!
And don't even get me started on sidewalks. I choose to drive everywhere, so why should a single penny of my hard-earned money go toward maintaining sidewalks for pedestrians? Walking is a personal choice. If you want somewhere to walk, go build your own private walking path. Bootstraps, people!
Oh, and public parks? Talk about a bridge too far. Without kids or dogs in the house, I never use them. Why am I still paying for other people's kids and pets to have a place to play? Back in my day, we entertained kids and puppies with sticks and stones in our own backyards, and we turned out just fine. If parents and dog owners want parks, they can band together and build their own - on their own dime, of course.
Heck, when you really think about it, even having a public fire department is kind of overstepping. I've never had a fire, so that's a service I've never personally used. Shouldn't each citizen be responsible for putting out their own fires? You could purchase your own hose and hydrant, or for a small fee, subscribe to a privatized firefighting service. Same goes for the military, and borders. If you don't like immigrants, drive them back across the border yourself.
Look, the free market is the answer for all of this. Well, except the corporate subsidies, and bank bailouts, since companies and banks do actually “cater to our every need from before birth to after death.” But definitely for everything else!
Whoa, I don't want to pay for you to walk around, I personally glide inches above the ground.
If you're worried about government spending your tax money, start with the military aka "defense": $857 billion in 2023. From which we citizens benefit through ... (maintaining a global military hegemony, hurrah for us!). A 2% trim in defense funds all libraries in the US with plenty to spare.
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2013/12/11/libraries-in...
Sorry, but you're a bad person. "I got mine, fuck you" makes you a bad person.
A normal, functioning society uses its excess resources to help everyone, including assholes who think they're the most important person on the planet.
One tenth of one percent of your taxes went to teaching a toddler how to read, or teaching a teenager how to fix their bike. Someone who can't afford otherwise rented a DVD to watch with their family and you're mad about that.
You're the worst kind of person, and the entire reason that our society is so sick.
Our species' and society's need for community remains high. Many of us (naive) technophiles predicted the internet would somehow be the best community ever. Perhaps even global.
Oops.
As you know, the internet, esp algorithmic hate machines and social media, destroys community. Our declining public and mental health is just one terrible adverse effect.
The need for libraries, to rebuild and nuture communities, has never been greater.
Alright so NOT public funds, but everyone that wants to take part or that is tacitly endorsing it.. and you would even give happily?
What's the difference with taxes?
I sure wonder how much is spent on public librairies vs the tax cuts companies like Apple get. But surely, we all benefit from multinationals getting tax cuts, aren't we? Much more than from our neighbors having access to books and tools right?
I wonder what your thoughts on government healthcare are. We'd all benefit from it, right?
Your bizarre take is hopefully one of youthful ignorance, but you do know the internet costs money right? Do you also know libraries are a source of internet for people that can't afford it?
Just because some members of the community need power tools doesn’t mean we all benefit from that. We all benefit from police, fire, ambulance, and roads — we all don’t benefit from free power tools. The free market is designed to serve the demands of the community for things like power tools and books. If we are worried about the poor who absolutely need to read the unauthorized biography of Princess Kate — that’s why we have charities.
Does society benefit from free access to a bestselling thriller novel? Not really. And let’s be real, the vast majority of people at the public library aren’t checking out philosophy or advanced calculus books. More like Dan Brown and Taylor Swift. This idea that public libraries are fonts of societal advancement might have been true in 1924, but certainly not in 2024.
If people want libraries, then a private entity could fill the need. Charge memberships to people that want to use that resource. Kind of like Kindle Unlimited. Or a gym.
Cutting these sorts of programs would result in more money in people’s pockets each month — so with that extra money, people could go to a second hand bookstore and buy whatever bestseller they want. Or rent whatever tool they need from a rental shop. If such a rental shop doesn’t exist and there is a demand, then someone can start one!
The need for physical libraries has passed just as the need for “public” radio and TV has passed. The internet has made those concepts as archaic as carrying coins.
I know many of the HN crowd seems to think the government should be this omnipresent entity that caters to a person’s every need from birth to death, but I have an extreme mistrust of government especially after the totalitarianism (and lies) we saw during Covid. I also resent paying high taxes when watching those taxes go to literal nonsense. Here is $900 billion worth of examples: https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Festivus-202...
Furthermore, the fact that the EU actually regulates bottle caps for me, is just a bridge too far.
I am not opposed to libraries or free tool rental — I am opposed to paying for them with our public tax money. If people want those things, then band together and spend your own money doing it. Ironically enough, I’d even donate to such a cause.