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> How could a library not excite you? :D I'll go ahead and answer that for you: $80 a year for a service I have never used nor do I know anyone who has used in

> How could a library not excite you? :D I'll go ahead and answer that for you: $80 a year for a service I have never used nor do I know anyone who has used in the past decade. It's just not a good value for money to me.

112012123 9y ago
What kind of library are you thinking? Public libraries are free.
- khedoros1 9y ago
  Aren't they ultimately paid for by taxes? If so, that's not free. I'd be interested in knowing where they got the $80 number from, though.
  - problems 9y ago
    My city's tax website includes a breakdown.
- apetresc 9y ago
  My guess is he's reverse-engineering that number from taxes allocated to public libraries or something like that.
- Veratyr 9y ago
  Looking at my own public library, the city spends $5.7m per year for libraries serving 90000 people ($63/pp). That's 2.85% of the city's total revenue, which comes from sales tax, property tax and business license tax. It's a small cost but you are paying it.
Veratyr 9y ago
The same reasoning can be applied to most of the things your taxes pay for though. How often do you need to call the police or the fire brigade? I haven't needed either in a decade either. There are likely other things your taxes pay for that you use more than other people as well. For example my city allocates a huge amount of money towards maintaining roads, which I never use and sidewalks, which I use more than the average resident.
- problems 9y ago
  A few things, like police and fire services I think most people are willing to pay for, they can see they may require them. You could make an argument that insurance companies and volunteer fire departments could provide a sufficient level of coverage, but ultimately for police especially you're probably going to pay a fair bit for it. I think there's good arguments to privatize roadways, or at least some aspects of them. But at least roadways and sidewalks are things that just about everyone uses at some point, even if indirectly. Libraries on the other hand probably only benefit a relatively small percentage of the population at all and only in a significant way to those who directly use them. They represent a particularly high level of waste in my opinion.

112012123 9y ago

What kind of library are you thinking? Public libraries are free.

khedoros1 9y ago
Aren't they ultimately paid for by taxes? If so, that's not free. I'd be interested in knowing where they got the $80 number from, though.
- problems 9y ago
  My city's tax website includes a breakdown.
apetresc 9y ago
My guess is he's reverse-engineering that number from taxes allocated to public libraries or something like that.
Veratyr 9y ago
Looking at my own public library, the city spends $5.7m per year for libraries serving 90000 people ($63/pp). That's 2.85% of the city's total revenue, which comes from sales tax, property tax and business license tax. It's a small cost but you are paying it.

Veratyr 9y ago

The same reasoning can be applied to most of the things your taxes pay for though. How often do you need to call the police or the fire brigade? I haven't needed either in a decade either. There are likely other things your taxes pay for that you use more than other people as well. For example my city allocates a huge amount of money towards maintaining roads, which I never use and sidewalks, which I use more than the average resident.

problems 9y ago
A few things, like police and fire services I think most people are willing to pay for, they can see they may require them. You could make an argument that insurance companies and volunteer fire departments could provide a sufficient level of coverage, but ultimately for police especially you're probably going to pay a fair bit for it. I think there's good arguments to privatize roadways, or at least some aspects of them. But at least roadways and sidewalks are things that just about everyone uses at some point, even if indirectly. Libraries on the other hand probably only benefit a relatively small percentage of the population at all and only in a significant way to those who directly use them. They represent a particularly high level of waste in my opinion.