Help Save Public Libraries from the Privatization Beast

Necessary? (4.00 / 1)

If I was on a city council and a privatization plan came in for libraries, my first question would be, "has this been tried anywhere else?"

Presuming I had honest city management, they would tell me of the Santa Clarita experience and that would be the end of that.

We don't need protection from higher levels of government for ideas that are demonstrably bad ideas.  

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by: smoker1 @ Thu Sep 22, 2011 at 02:36:18 AM UTC

Kamikazi politics (0.00 / 0)

You people are nuts.  Your rants against and hatred of private enterprise is completely irrational.

How about you look at each proposal on a case by case basis.  Allow local governments to decide if a private entity could run a library that they can no longer afford to keep open?

You'd rather have the library boarded up than allow a company to run it?  really?

You will also no doubt refuse any talk about reforming public pensions which are driving these communities to seek other ways to maintiain services, and you'll also support the bill that would prohibit a city from declaring bankruptcy in order to right its financial house and save libraries...because that would mean crossing the public employee unions.

Your hypocricy knows no limits.

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by: Bob Loblaw @ Thu Sep 22, 2011 at 17:31:10 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

You People... (0.00 / 0)

I doubt that I represent the majority opinion here on issues relating to public employee unions, but I fully support pension reform.  I support Jeff Adachi for Mayor of San Francisco, oppose any barriers to Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection and have been concerned for some time about the dominance of the public employee unions with the Democratic Party.

Republicans go WAY too far. They don't believe in the right of collective barginning--which I think is one of the core rights that we all must enjoy.  

So, I'm not sure if I'm one of the "people" referenced in "You people", but I don't think they'll have me. (sniff)

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by: smoker1 @ Thu Sep 22, 2011 at 18:52:52 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Have You ever (0.00 / 0)

Worked in a Public Library? I have as a part of the LA County Library System, for 3 Years, I was paid below minimum wage as were a good number of other Public Library Employees, back then the minimum wage was $3.35 an hour, I was paid $2.65 an hour, Of course there was a lawsuit against the County and and the County lost, But no back pay was ever awarded, This is why Unions exist, To Protect otherwise helpless or nearly helpless people from uncaring boobs who view people only as insignificant numbers and no, the last time I'd been in touch with some friends at the Library there was no talk of being a part of a Union or even of joining one, in hindsight, Maybe there should have been...

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by: SuperJoker @ Tue Sep 27, 2011 at 15:23:10 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

we are in agreement (0.00 / 0)

I too believe in collective bargaining as a right and the republicans are as idealogically driven as democrats and just as controlled by narrow special interests that nobody elected.

I do however think that you and me are in a distinct minority on this site.  Its editorial content alone would never allow anything that espouses the sort of meaningful pension reform that Jeff Adachi is talking about.  

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by: Bob Loblaw @ Thu Sep 22, 2011 at 19:23:41 PM UTC

"Privatization" removes value from the local community (0.00 / 0)

and diverts it to outside investors.

LSSI achieves "efficiency" only by firing the city's staff and hiring them back - with reduced benefits and a "privatized" pension plan, from which Wall Street extracts its pound of flesh.

Wall Street knows that in the next decade the baby-boomers are going to start cashing in their 401k's, and the fund managers are desperate for new revenues. So they've hired the Republican Party to preach the gospel of"privatization" to capture every dollar from every public revenue stream they can get their hands on - from libraries to schools, to military logistics.

Most of America's cherished public institutions started as private or voluntary associations. But as public appreciation increased for libraries, fire departments and hospitals, these institutions became "publicized". Taxpayer support for these enduring public institutions remained strong until they were desegregated in the 1950's, 60's and 70's.

Ronald Reagan's new Republican Party arrived in the wake of the civil rights era. And it's no coincidence that he found a receptive audience for the lie that "government is the problem". Today's crypto-racist Tea Puppets are last gasp of that dying breed for whom government really was a problem. It was government that enforced the desegregation of their cherished "white-only" lunch-counters, buses, schools, hospitals, and yes... libraries.

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by: jjohnjj @ Sat Sep 24, 2011 at 03:04:46 AM UTC

Wrong side of history? (4.00 / 1)

I mean book stores are going away, books are more readily accessible digitally. Shouldn't we be exploring digital libraries? Why waste money on land and operations, when it can be done simpler.

This is my problem with where the Progressives are. We're not defining what role Government should play correctly.

Government shouldn't be anachronistic, we should be PROGRESSIVE. We should see where life technology is trending and finding ways to make that work to equalize. Digital libraries will be much more beneficial to all than the brick and mortar ones.

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by: duder @ Sun Sep 25, 2011 at 00:41:19 AM UTC

ding ding ding we have a winner (3.00 / 2)

You are 100% correct.  The problem is that progressives believe that government's most important role is to have as many people as possible on the payroll, no matter what.  Even if their role has become redundant or can be done much more efficiently and at less cost by a machine.  Government must never lay anyone off or cut the payroll....because its not a service provider, its a jobs provider.

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by: Bob Loblaw @ Wed Sep 28, 2011 at 23:46:31 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Competition anyone? (0.00 / 0)

The only way for a private profit-driven company to take over a public function and wring a profit from it is to 1) screw the workers or 2) screw the customers.  Or both.  That's assuming there isn't a lot of "waste" and "inefficiency" in the public enterprise.  There probably is some, but, as Arnold Schwarzenegger discovered after running for governor on a platform of "cutting the fat," there wasn't enough to make a dent in the budget deficit.  It certainly doesn't compare to the bottomless pit of desire for profit.

There were subscription libraries long before there were free public ones.  Let these companies set some up and compete with the public libraries.  We'll see whether they are so wonderful when they aren't sucking up public money and forcing their competition to shut down.  Let the public decide based on actual competition, not glossy brochures and empty promises.

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by: Sofia @ Mon Sep 26, 2011 at 06:29:32 AM UTC