The Greedy Ghost of Market Fundamentalism

[Detroitnerd]

Excellent speech from author Philip Pullman:

http://falseeconomy.org.uk/blog/save...philip-pullman

Excerpt:

Market fundamentalism, this madness that’s infected the human race, is like a greedy ghost that haunts the boardrooms and council chambers and committee rooms from which the world is run these days.
...
The greedy ghost is everywhere. That office block isn’t making enough money: tear it down and put up a block of flats. The flats aren’t making enough money: rip them apart and put up a hotel. The hotel isn’t making enough money: smash it to the ground and put up a multiplex cinema. The cinema isn’t making enough money: demolish it and put up a shopping mall.
“The greedy ghost understands profit all right. But that’s all he understands... He doesn’t understand libraries at all. That branch – how much money did it make last year? Why aren’t you charging higher fines? Why don’t you charge for library cards?”
The greedy ghost understands profit all right. But that’s all he understands. What he doesn’t understand is enterprises that don’t make a profit, because they’re not set up to do that but to do something different. He doesn’t understand libraries at all, for instance. That branch – how much money did it make last year? Why aren’t you charging higher fines? Why don’t you charge for library cards? Why don’t you charge for every catalogue search? Reserving books – you should charge a lot more for that. Those bookshelves over there – what’s on them? Philosophy? And how many people looked at them last week? Three? Empty those shelves and fill them up with celebrity memoirs.
That’s all the greedy ghost thinks libraries are for.

[barnesfoto]

good post.
bump.

[oladub]

We used to have a big yellow bookmobile that would come to the nearest village once a month. The village has a library of mostly donated books but the bookmobile was a source of different books every time it came. We were upset when the inter-library loan system ended it's bookmobile service. However, in time, an inter-library computer setup was established so we can now order any book in any state library on our at home computer. Our local library phones us when such books arrive. We now have a wider range of books available and at less cost to the library system. However, it was fun entering the slightly tilted, when parked, yellow bookmobile.

Also, consider Netflix or Amazon's Kindle. Both are private lending libraries, charging reasonable fees, which have vastly expanded the range of library material. Does any public library offer the range of material offered by those two for profit [[gasp) offerings? It isn't that Amazon and Kindle are putting public libraries out of business. They are just adding an additional range of products in different formats; something which Karl Marx, whom the author quoted, never imagined.

I am a supporter of public libraries and think it's a shame that libraries always seem to receive the budget axe when government finds itself tax short to run its expanding range of programs. The answer then is to either raise taxes or cut other government services.