> For some reason people really want this to be a bad idea and I’m not sure why. We just voted on a library levy renewal in Seattle and the (comparatively very

> For some reason people really want this to be a bad idea and I’m not sure why. We just voted on a library levy renewal in Seattle and the (comparatively very small) part of the levy that would pay to remove library fines was basically all anyone talked about. A small chunk of the talking points centered around whether fines should be a deterrent or if they have a purpose. But the majority? Boiled down to some variant of "people will get away with stealing library books" / "what if homeless people get free books and aren't punished for not being like the rest of us and returning books?" I come down on "library fines are not beneficial to what libraries are supposed to do," for what it's worth, and voted yes on the levy in large part so that fines would be done away with.