The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible - Bastiat Institute

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Chapter 15 • Book Battles
“Later, dear. As I was saying,” continued the man, “the woman
demands that those sexist and racist books be thrown out and that
the library purchase her list of books instead.”
By now the police had handcuffed both of the fi ghters and were
dragging them down the street. Jonathan shook his head and sighed.
“I suppose the police arrested them for this brawl?”
“Not at all,” laughed the old woman. “The police arrested both
of them for refusing to pay the library tax. According to the law,
everyone must pay for all the books whether they like them or not.”
“Really?” said Jonathan. “Why don’t the police just let the
people keep their money and let them pay for what they like?”
“But then my daughter couldn’t afford to go to a library,” said
the kneeling man. He peeled the wrapping from a big red-and-white
spiral candy sweet and handed it to his daughter.
“Hold on, mister,” said the old woman as she shot a look of
disapproval at the candy. “Isn’t food for your daughter’s mind just
as important as food for her stomach?”
“What are you getting at?” responded the man defensively. His
daughter had already managed to smear the candy across her dress.
The woman replied fi rmly, “Long ago we had a great variety of
subscription libraries – known then as ‘scriptlibs’. It cost a small
membership fee every year and no one complained because they
only paid for the scriptlibs that they liked. Scriptlibs even competed
for members, trying to have the best books and staff, the most
convenient hours and locations. Some even went door-to-door to
pick up and deliver books. People paid for their choices because
library membership was important to them.” She added, “A higher
priority than candy!”
Turning directly to Jonathan, she explained, “Then the Council
of Lords decided that a library was too important to be left to the
individual’s liking. At taxpayer expense, the Council created the
GLIB, a large government library. The GLIB became popular
because it was free – people never had to pay to use the books. To
do the work of each scriptlib librarian, the Counsel hired three GLIB
librarians at top salaries. Shortly after that, the scriptlibs closed.”
“The Lords provided a library for free?” repeated Jonathan. “But
I thought you said that everyone had to pay a library tax?”