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From: nrh@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Re: Measure of success?
Message-ID: <2049@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 17-Mar-85 01:18:35 EST
Article-I.D.: inmet.2049
Posted: Sun Mar 17 01:18:35 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 18-Mar-85 08:16:02 EST
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Nf-ID: #R:ukc:-496400:inmet:28200008:000:2112
Nf-From: inmet!nrh    Mar 15 17:25:00 1985

>***** inmet:net.politics.t / ukc!ncg /  4:29 am  Mar 14, 1985
>What happens to Public Libraries in Libertaria?

They'd exist, just as free or very cheap medical service exists
NOW, because of private donations.  My own best guess is that
bookstores and charities would operate such things.  My understanding
is that there's a local PRIVATE library called the Atheneum that's
quite nice, but I've NO idea what it costs (I suspect it's not
cheap, since a cheap one would compete directly with the Boston 
Public Library).

>How are Adult Literacy Classes financed?

This would be a natural P.R. gimmick for bookstores, and schools
in general (not to mention private libraries!). Chances are, though,
they'd be financed privately, just as most schools would be.
Of course, I imagine private groups feeling that high literacy is
a good thing would give to organizations offering such classes for
the poor.

>Who decides whether Adult Literacy Classes are worthwhile?

Now we come to a strength of the libertarian position.  In a libertarian
society, you'd have to find someone to convince that Adult Literacy
Classes were worthwhile.  It might be merely the illiterate types
who wish to read, but you must convince SOMEONE to pay for the 
classes.  (Or, of course, you can give them yourself).  By "pay
for", I mean that the wherewithal must be provided -- this might
be by way of donations of labor, space, and materials, rather than
money.

But that's about ALL you have to do.  In OUR society, you must convince
several layers of government that the teachers involved are legit (even
if you KNOW they are), that the building meets building code standards,
that you are allowing an appropriate ethnic mix into your classes, that
you are not overcharging (or underpaying!) that your employees are
paying the correct amount of tax, that, if applicable, you are
presenting evolution and creation as seriously competing theories about
the beginning of the universe.  

In short, in a free society, you must find benefactors.  In a 
state-dominated society, you must politic, and deal with the
outcome of politics.