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The money doesn’t just buy books. You’ll find that your library spends less than a third of its budget on “content”. The building, maintenance, salaries, utilities eat up the lion's share of the budget.
Even the $350 isn’t paying for one person's use. That’s one person's taxable share. Far more people pay taxes than actually use the library.
The library is a publicly funded service. Why shouldn’t anyone of the public enjoy it?
Just don’t be confused that your taxes pay for your use. Any regular user of a library is assuredly receiving a subsidized benefit.
And why is that of any concern? It really isn’t unless “supporting the art” is on your list of things you’d like to do. Going to the library is supporting yourself....buying the books is supporting the art.
I was a library user for many years...decades and never paid. Now I pay and never use. I am happy to subsidize the library with my taxes to support literacy in my community for all...needy or not.
Even libraries make the point I’m trying to make. They don’t say “what libraries pay for books is a nice sum for author's”. No. It’s that the sales of books go UP when they are included in libraries. The exposure drives sales. SALES. Not “check outs”. To support the authors, buy the books. Not 1/50th of a share of a book.
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