Quote:
Originally Posted by emellaich
At one point in the distant past, libraries were necessary because books were created by hand and there was a limited supply of books.
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Nice hypothesis, but you're forgetting one minor detail: at the time, what we think of a public libraries did not exist. "Libraries" were collections of a few dozen books owned by monasteries or occasionally rich noblemen, accessible if at all to others like them. There were no public libraries at all.
In the United States, public libraries got their start along with other forms of public education, nearly all in the 18th century or later, long after the invention of the printed book. The big promoter of libraries was Andrew Carnegie, who was the Bill Gates of his time. He built hundreds of libraries, from large colleges to small towns, who happily took over the management of the libraries that he built. Other towns built their own libraries.
Ironically enough, books were relatively cheaper then. That is, a day's wage for an average workman could buy more books than it can today. But Carnegie thought that libraries mattered. Towns thought that libraries mattered. People thought that libraries mattered.
Y'know, for the "pay your own way" people ... the people trying to move to some unknown and untested future ... I have to wonder what they think tax money should be spent on. They've said it shouldn't be spent for the support of the poor, for the provision of fire and emergency medical services, for the running of libraries, for the management of roads, even for the maintenance of city buildings. What the hell
should it be spent for, then, except for the salaries of city officials (something I've never seen a city official try to cut?). Why exactly are we paying taxes if
not to have libraries, emergency services, roads, and help for those less well off? Why did our predecessors get it so wrong when they thought we
should get those things for our tax money?
"Pay as you go" has been tried; we call it the Middle Ages. It turned out very, very badly for 99% of the people. The people who built a world with highways and fire trucks, ambulances and, yes, libraries, knew what they were doing. Throwing all that under the (privatized) bus and going back to the Middle Ages would be a very, very bad idea.