Those on the sharp end of the economical axe are outraged.
Since December, the Queens library system hasn't purchased a single new book.
Library directors have made a choice between paying for librarians to staff the facilities, or paying for books to shelve in locations with limited hours.
Paul LeClerc of the New York Public Library can't understand how Mayor Bloomberg could even think of finding budget relief by slicing off library funds.
Advocates opposed to cuts in library funding claim that the cuts are too steep, too severe, and the whole system will collapse.
Whether you are for or against the cuts, the fact remains, there isn't enough money to go around. So if the library is to maintain its level of funding, some other program has to be cut even deeper.
How about cutting funds for medical care for the poor? Instead, give them a library card and point them in the direction of the books on health. Have them learn how to better care for their bodies, so they don't need to run to the free clinics so often. Everyone come out ahead in the long run.
Is it all that necessary to fix the streets or replace the sewers or pick up the garbage? How about cutting back on the amount of money used for environmental protection or water purification? People could flock to the library and study books that would teach them how to do such things themselves, saving the city millions while encouraging library use.
Or what if all the administrators and bureaucrats took a massive pay cut, with the cost savings being put into the library system's book purchasing budget?
It's all well and good to complain about an issue, but if you can't offer up a solution, you're just whingeing. You don't want the library budget cut. Who's to do without so the library doesn't suffer any pain?
2 comments:
Our university library hasn't bought any books for many months either. We are being fed the line about deficits and budget cuts. In the meanwhile, a crowd of bored and stupid bureaucrats who have occupied all the best offices and snatched all the newest equipment get sky-high salaries.
Firing just two of these useless administrators could keep our library flourishing and expanding like crazy.
Private corporations have been forced to cull the dead weight at the top, but public bureaucracies don't seem to operate under those same rules.
I suspect it has something to do with friends or supporters of elected officials being put in administrative positions.
They disappeared into the woodwork when times were good and money abundant. Useless as ever, they're untouchable when it's time to make budget cuts.
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