[12832] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: What is required for information access?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Seth Rothberg)
Mon May 30 19:14:43 1994
Date: Mon, 30 May 1994 11:59:16 -0400
From: Seth Rothberg <SROTH@ucsvax.ucs.umass.edu>
To: com-priv@psi.com
X-Vms-To: @com-priv
Freed asks, albeit somewhat rudely,
|Would it be possible for the wire-head community in your area
|to get their fat asses away from the terminal for a little
|and do some fund raising? perhaps a fund raising concert, a bake sale,
|a raffle, a cyber fair, a cyber flea market, private donations, corporate
|donations, maybe the Univ could run a little site that members of the
|community could hook up to at say 10 bucks a month.... I think yer only
|limited by your imagination... sure its takes initiative, motivation and
|work but it somehow seems much more satisfying and dignified than hey i
|need a hand-out...
How do you know that we haven't been fund-raising? Over the last two years
we've lost something like $50,000 in our materials budget. Staffing is down
to the minimum, below minimum in at least one department. But yes, we do
have an active Friends of Library. They've raised a good deal of money this
past fiscal year, but cannot, and should not, be expected to repeat their
effort year after year. Fund raising $10,000+ every year for connectivity
would be an inordinate burden on the Friends.
Our library currently costs each citizen of the town about $0.41 a week.
This $0.41 comes from property taxes. Property taxes are approved at
town meetings. Overrides over the allowed 2.5% increase must be approved
at town meeting and again by voters in a general election.
No one likes property taxes but the decision making is fairly democratic.
Everybody gets to decide on taxes. More than that, because the library budget
is a public concern, the public can decide what kind of library it wants.
It decides this every year.
Whether you're a socialist, libertarian, objectivist, syndicalist, labor
unionist, democrat, republican, etc., etc., the library is a pretty good deal.
Seth
