A Soapbox Rant

Sorry it has been awhile since I last posted. The holidays and everything. I am also teaching an undergraduate research strategies. It is great fun teaching, but also takes time. But I'll try to do better with my blog.

A question to ponder: What can we do to help public libraries during a difficult economy? Municipal budgets get slashed and library funding is almost always the first to be on chopping block. Conversely, libraries become more valuable during a difficult economy because of the resources available to people who would rather borrow than buy. More people need to use the library as libraries close and staff is cut. From the brief searching I did on the internet, it looks like any federal stimulus money was going to go to libraries to give them faster broadband service. Nearly all of the articles I looked at were nearly a year old. I don't know if any of that money was ever distributed, but if it was, it didn't help libraries or the economy one bit.

Actually, I know the answer. Cut taxes. Cut taxes on businesses, individuals, corporations. Rather than raise taxes to give our money to the federal government who don't know our needs (or what they are doing for that matter), let people keep their money so they can buy stuff. People get jobs when other people buy their stuff. Let businesses reinvest and hire new workers. Workers pay taxes. Tax revenues go up when you have more people paying smaller amounts of taxes rather than a small number paying huge taxes. Those taxes help fund not only libraries, but all the other municipal needs as well.

See, it really isn't that hard. And thus ends of my soapbox rant.