this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2024
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Libraries have free books. That takes profit from Amazon.
Libraries have free Internet. That takes profit from ISPs.
Libraries have free research tools and expert guidance from librarians. That takes profit from all sorts of companies that profit off your ignorance.
And worst of all, that stuff is all publicly funded, so when you look at a library you see government helping people. And there's nothing conservatives hate more than government that helps people.
Libraries educate people. That takes away their voting base.
Interestingly, I hear people around me complain all the time about public funding for public goods…
We have more than most areas, and almost nobody knows the things are tax funded. And it’s all really nice stuff, like the environmental center is publicly funded through tax and even people who hate public goods rave about it (so naturally I point out that it’s all tax funded or it wouldn’t be nearly so nice and they look like they smelled poop)..
Our major utility isn’t even really a private entity, because it’s a renewable (hydro), and they aren’t allowed to own the river/dictate water movement here. The city does that for them.
It’s like a bastion of public goods in the heart of conservative space, and nobody realizes that it’s all tax paid… because it’s nice.
Oh, they don't want those services to go away, they just want them to become part of corporations so the efficiency of the free market and the power of consumer choice will lower costs and encourage competition!
Just like healthcare, or airline deregulation did. Or pharmaceutical companies buying 100 year old mediations and jacking the price 2700% for "R&D". So cheap, so efficient, with so little overhead. People just love the free market for essential services!
A shitheel at Forbes tried proposing that we should just give public libraries to Amazon.
Government taking my tax money to hurt corporations when it should be using the tax money to spread ~~democracy~~ constitutional republics throughout the ~~world~~ Middle East!