Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
A person who pays for an out-of-state library card is in a different category. There is no legal obligation for them to pay anything to a library in a different state. So if they do so, they are, I assume, doing this because they will gain some economic advantage by doing so. Specifically, if someone pays $50 to the Philly library, they are doing so because they believe that the benefit they will receive from the Philly library is at least $50 - it would be stupid (and weird) for them to act otherwise. However, unlike taxpayers, they don't make up for this subsidy by somehow subsidizing someone else in exchange - they don't pay for schools or poor relief or anything else that taxes are used for in the community.
So they end up being something of a net drain on the community (if not on the library).
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I don't understand your point here. If the library fee is priced correctly, the out of state person is paying for all of his usage. So that out of state person is not using up the subsidy paid by the community. If that user doesn't utilize that card for whatever reason, then that money will help subsidize the community. (And it'll go either way if the library fee isn't priced correctly.)
Why does it matter whether or not the out of state person's library card fee goes to anything besides the library?