Comment on eat the rich and go to libraries
Tabooki@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Libraries are far from free
Freedom isn’t free.
Want to drive in a world with roads that won’t destroy your car? Taxes. Want to live in a world where people are free to stab you without worrying of repercussions, if so taxes. Want to live in a country with a strong economy and workforce, if so taxes.
Exactly. I have no problem paying taxes.
They are free in the same sense as anything else that is free in a shared universe with finite available resources
I’d quibble that any organization that acts to spread knowledge qualifies as free in the sense of expanding freedom of choice, and argue thus that if their operational costs as a public nonprofit have to be expressed as an at-cost service (or reasonably priced and used to subside their other related operations) - that’s still a meaningful free in multiple ways.
But on a more basic level - yeah, it is shameful that libraries (broadly speaking) often have to operate like they’re badly managed businesses. But that arguably in most cases is not the fault of the library itself but on society (late stage capitalism, billionaires and the other usual suspects).
Tl;dr: You’re not wrong, but also is that really the hill you wanna plant your flag in?
Yet another pedant “But taxes!!!1!”
C’mon man. We all know. This is not an edgy take.
Private libraries exist. Some are very expensive (e.g. a classic car library).
Must it be edgy?
You intended it to be.
Mind-reader.
fatboy93@lemmy.zip 4 months ago
And if they aren’t, I’ll gladly pay for them
Currently my taxes do pay for them.