Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia has decided to cut off funding to 11 of the city's 54 libraries to help close a $1 billion budget gap (full story). The plan is being criticized by those who believe they are entitled to "free" (i.e. taxpayer-funded) books, magazines, movies, Internet access, etc.
What's interesting is that five of the affected libraries are already set to be taken over by private foundations, individuals, and corporations. Amy Dougherty, executive director of the Friends of the Free Library, responded, "Basically what he's talking about is privately run libraries of some sort. While we certainly would prefer to keep it publicly run, this seems to be a third way, and it's better than closing them."
People should be cheering loudly over this solution. Libraries should be privately run. As part of the free market, libraries will be forced to compete with other legitimate private businesses, and as we capitalists know, competition is good for the economy. But perhaps the best reason for privatizing libraries is that it would eliminate the need to placate the desires of virtually every special interest group under the sun, an inherent concern in public institutions.
Personally, I like Lew Rockwell's solution: "We don't have to shut public libraries. Just sell them to the highest bidder."
What's interesting is that five of the affected libraries are already set to be taken over by private foundations, individuals, and corporations. Amy Dougherty, executive director of the Friends of the Free Library, responded, "Basically what he's talking about is privately run libraries of some sort. While we certainly would prefer to keep it publicly run, this seems to be a third way, and it's better than closing them."
People should be cheering loudly over this solution. Libraries should be privately run. As part of the free market, libraries will be forced to compete with other legitimate private businesses, and as we capitalists know, competition is good for the economy. But perhaps the best reason for privatizing libraries is that it would eliminate the need to placate the desires of virtually every special interest group under the sun, an inherent concern in public institutions.
Personally, I like Lew Rockwell's solution: "We don't have to shut public libraries. Just sell them to the highest bidder."
Labels: Free Market
1 Comments:
I am in 100% agreement. My neighbor in Bristol, PA, a "suburb" of Filthydelphia, but in Bucks, not Philadelphia County, worked as an IT person in a private library. The other HUGE advantage to private library's that wasn't mentioned is they respect your privacy a lot more. They stonewalled the idiots at HS more than once over their inquiries as to who checked out what, etc. Go Free Market!
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