What gets Christian's goat.
Public Libraries: No Longer for the Literate, by Christian Schneider, senior fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. (National Review, 4/26/2011)
Excerpt: When we consider the proper scope of government, do we really think of free entertainment as a basic public service? Has anybody ever answered a citizen survey listing “ability to rent Superbad for free” among their top-ten government priorities? And wouldn’t the public be better served if people who could afford it went to a video store and paid for their DVDs? Wouldn’t that create jobs and economic activity?
Modern-library apologists would point out that much of written literature is popular entertainment and that it would be impossible to draw a line between what is valuable and what is not. If those people can’t tell the difference between adultery in The Scarlet Letter and a character enjoying hot pastry in a nontraditional way in the movie American Pie, then they have been standing too near the book de-magnitizers for too long.
With local and state governments facing significant budget challenges, it might be time to take a closer look at the non-essential services they are providing. Nobody is facing imminent death because they haven’t seen season one of Who’s the Boss? on DVD. Yet local libraries might be soaking the taxpayers to make watching Alyssa Milano’s pre-teen years a reality for all.
A selection of other opinion pieces from Christian Schneider..
Mr. Ryan Goes to Washington. (4/21/2011. Ryan's 'welcome' return home. But we know how this tour is turning out.)
Madison vs. the Rest of Wisconsin. (4/7/2011. Turning a blind eye to Waukesha County.)
The Forgotten Story in Wisconsin. (3/11/2011. Walker & the Fitzgerald brothers....hair blowing in the wind.... pecs glistening in the sun....standing firm....)
Wisconsin State Employees Should Have Some Koch and Smile. (3/1/2011. The Punster.)
Another Library Conundrum. (1/26/2007. I wonder if Christian ever fantasizes about being a stand-up comic.)
Making a Donation to the Library. (5/30/2006)
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