A Proposal to Build More Libraries

As the housing market collapsed in 2008, property seizures increased dramatically. Because of the general economic collapse that followed, many of the houses remain vacant. Many of these houses could easily be converted to small community libraries.

It is critical in the U.S. that people in communities communicate. Because it is a nation of immigrants, there are often problems communicating, a situation that public libraries have helped to address. Public libraries are the center of self-education in the country, and other countries lack the gem that is the American library system. Millions have improved their English at the library.

Whether the IRS seizures could be successfully challenged at the Supreme Court is a matter of debate. The Constitution, after all, guarantees that private property shall only be taken for public use if just compensation is paid to the owner. Since it seems unlikely that the IRS will voluntarily be returning the property to the original owners, the government might use the property for public libraries.

Funding for books should not be a problem, since government is already paying for cable television. The book budget can simply be taken from cuts to the cable TV budget. America needs public funding of cable TV about as much as it needed the attack on Pearl Harbor. Cable TV turns people into illiterate idiots who have difficulty competing with people from other nations.

Libraries have received public support since Roman times. They are not a socialist objective, but capitalists and socialists usually agree that the public derives great benefit from them. A library is the only public building that a citizen can enter and use on a daily basis. The public benefit is immediately realized.

To leave open the possibility that the original owners of the houses might some day re-purchase them, the groups obtaining the houses from the government might do so with the understanding that the houses would be resold on demand to the original owner at cost. Such an agreement would be critical to avoid any potential violence from previous owners who may have grown sentimentally attached to the house. This peacemaking provision would strongly tend to eliminate any violence.

People who believe in public works projects such as those of the 1930's will find this proposal to be quite attractive. It would put a number of people back to work building libraries, and at the same time it would better educate the public. It is a good idea for the country.