Just something I’ve been turning over in my head for a while. Not something I’m considering from a political angle as any change would be almost impossible politically.

On the pro side: It’s true that libraries act as subsidies, but they do so in the most benign way possible. The only people who can take advantage of the subsidized education merit it by their hard work. Furthermore, they’re the best possible people to subsidize since they’re the most likely to make good use of the resources provided. And when we get someone like that, it pays off big. And in the end, libraries aren’t all that expensive.

On the con side: How expensive are books, actually? I mean you can get all kinds of stuff cheap at a second hand store, and the poor in America can afford iPhones. The kind of kid who’s going to spend enough time in a library to be useful will get his hands on the books and succeed anyway. Saying that libraries aren’t all that expensive doesn’t help any, because most things on the book “aren’t all that expensive” when you compare them with the rest of the government’s budget. Besides, those places are hotbeds of government workers, or hadn’t you noticed?