NYT: Economics and Libraries

Last week the New York times featured an editorial calling for Mrs. Bush to be more forceful in her advocacy for libraries.  It cited the recent near-closing of the Salinas Public Library, and other actual closings that were less publicized to bolster the point that America's public libraries are in trouble.

We think that library welfare is a laudable cause.  We love libraries.  Quid Mother once belonged to three libraries at once (a personal best in a lifetime of library usage) and  nearly all of Quid's relatives have worked in libraries at one time or another.  We have observed, however, that the best functioning ones rely at least in part on memberships for their financing, as opposed to being funded  entirely through tax dollars.

Meanwhile, the New York Times would like to offer us a really compelling reason to have better libraries:

As globalization takes hold, American workers have more competition than ever before from well-educated, hard-working people in places like India and China. For the United States to maintain its standing and its standard of living, it needs to make a greater commitment to books, literacy training, materials on English as a second language, and all of the other services libraries provide.

And we know that the reason that India and China have so many well-educated, hard-working people is that those countries are just chock-a-block full of public libraries.

Psssst...Mr. Editor, why don't you just recommend that Americans settle for $60 per month salaries?  That would solve a bunch of problems, like illegal immigration, the need for English as a second language and literacy, full stop.