if you invented public libraries today, every opinion page in the country would be arguing for means tested subsidized Amazon Prime memberships

April 03, 2026 - 11:41 UTC

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I’ll go you one better and say that we wouldn’t be able to invent fire departments today.
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We'd be back to Crassus offering to put out a fire if you sell him the house for 10% of the value first
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What's funny (in a macabre way) is... we already have means tested Amazon Prime memberships. EBT and Medicaid recipients qualify for discounted Prime (after an introductory offer) If you're poor, Amazon will still take your money. It's a gross aspect of late stage capitalism
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Saw that only this week. Am I behind the curve on this (being Amazon-averse has benefits)?

I hate to say “smart” but honestly don’t think the Wall Martzz would pony up half-pricer yearly free delivery.
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Anyone who was ever awake in Econ 100 knows that a literate populace is a public good.
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Yes yes yes.
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Absofuckinglutely.
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Also if the NYT started today everyone would understand it's a openly right wing paper and they wouldn't angrily repost every article that gets published.

No one takes the NYPost or FNC in good faith. But for some reason with NYT the bait works every every every time
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And if window curtains were invented today we'd be told they had to be banned in the name of public safety. "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear."
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Go further: if in 2026 you invented tap water, toilets, showers, anything essential to human hygiene and public health, legacy media columnists would publish thousands of moralizing pieces insisting that only a certain class of people deserved them.
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I think about this a fair amount. If we didn't already have libraries and someone proposed them, they'd be called socialism (derogatory).
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Was just thinking the other day how in today’s climate, Title IX would have zero chance (as anything other than a thinly-veiled anti-trans thing, anyway). Could say the same of so much legislation we now consider foundational.
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True and the fact that so many of our libraries were founded by a past century's evil oligarchs just makes the contrast between this century's evil oligarchs more stark.
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I covered a library board meeting 30 YEARS AGO, and one of the board members questioned the need for libraries “when we have bookstores down the street.” It’s always been with us, to some extent.
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and maybe burgers shouldn’t cost 34 bux
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Where there is a waiting list, shouldn't the children from the families with fewer resources be given the priority? Because there are waiting lists.
It's understandable that NY state &city do not want to exclude the rich kids, but should it recognize the urgency, the higher need?
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FDR knew better than anyone that SSA should be universal to ensure its long-term political viability.
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Daily reminder that eligibility requirements for public services waste money 🙂
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Rich scumbags hate the public good. They know that if something benefits everyone and people like it they are one step further away from keeping all of us isolated and weak and it isn’t as easy to pick our pockets. Public cohesion and collectivism is the enemy of neofeudalism.
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The continued school vouchers scam underlines this point repeatedly.
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yes, make them pay a wealth tax, but public education should be free to all
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It would do affluent kids well to be less stratified and more connected to their communities. Of course, many affluent families have no issue affording expensive private daycare/PS, hiring full time nannies and au pairs, etc
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I think this is smart. When the wealthy are receiving a benefit, they’re more likely care about the quality of the services, when they’re “inside” the conversation they may actually create a better system for themselves and thereby for everyone. Interested to see how it works out.
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They Pay $34 For Hamburgers; Should They Be Allowed To Drive On Streets For Free?
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It wouldn't shock me in the slightest if Amazon was expressly pushing for exactly this outcome.
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They are definitely trying to abolish public libraries and public schools and weird numbers of "left" people support defunding them when the argument is that women should teach and read to children for free
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Isn't it time to stop letting rich assholes publish their opinions?
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The most sleazy approach these types take is to both say they suppprt universal preschool while saying they don't know if it should be means tested (not universal), like @tinakotek.bsky.social who tried to kill @friendsofpfa.bsky.social to give rich donors a tax cut www.wweek.com/news/schools/2026/02/24/kotek-pivots-from-criticizing-universal-preschool-to-trying-to-take-it-statewide/
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"The governor said Tuesday afternoon it was too early to determine if a universal preschool program at the state level would be means-tested, a demand of state senators who tried to kill the county program last June"
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The truth of this post physically hurt me. I think my heart broke.
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I am quite aware of my age given that I remember a time when the New York Times didn’t publish embarrassing articles on a daily basis.
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I would say, "we let everyone send their kids to public school no questions asked. Why would people complain about this but not that," but then I remember people complain about that all the time.
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Exactly. Less to the point, as that very article points out: "...the neighborhood is also more socioeconomically diverse than its stereotype. It is home to many renters and city workers, and it contains the gradations of wealth that make the city’s current affordability crisis so complex."
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For an institution that relies on news occurring they sure want a lot of nothing to happen.
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Ah yes, the burger analogy here again to explain what "they" should or shouldn't have.
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Perfectly stated 👏
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Do they drive on roads? Do they have streetlights in their neighborhood? What a stupid headline.
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Everybody’s child care should be free, but both parties in our 2 party system prefer that all the money goes to war profiteers.
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OPINION: Should the fire department serve every home or just those below a certain income threshold?
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Feed everyone. If you ask for food, you get food. Make everyone healthy. If you are sick you get healthcare. The argument “who is deserving?” Is stupid. These are basic human rights. All are deserving.
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When I was a kid there was a water fountain on the public school playground. We drank out of it "for free", not realizing we were already slaves to an omnipresent Stalinist state.
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Yes.
And the New York Times also straight up hates liberalism, even as liberals keep the paper in cash flow.
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It’s not far off from the current reality. I’ve seen at least a dozen techbros say the digital library apps should have a monthly/yearly subscription service. Do they want that money go to the library? lol… that’s not how you double shareholder value.

I’d imagine they just want access to LLMscrape
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So when digital books were invented Amazon made sure they completely owned that model.
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We had a County Executive here who fought hard to close down the library system, on the grounds that it was a waste of money when people could just go to Barnes and Noble if they wanted a book.

He later went to Congress and was convicted on insider trading charges. Charming guy!
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Anyway, now every year when I get my County Tax bill there's a separate line so I can see how much I'm spending to maintain the libraries, and it's an annual reminder that it's about the best deal going. Thanks for proving the opposite of your point, you plutocratic felon!
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A root of America’s sickness is the death of belief In public good out of spite. Why should anything benefit everyone if someone I don’t like gets something from it?
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Imagine trying to build a municipal water or sewer system today
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A guy I met at a tech meetup in Dublin was against UBI "because drug dealers would get it". Well fuck the rest of us then, as long as they don't get something. That guy was the WORST.
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this is the kind of thing that sounds like hyperbole but is so powerful because it's actually literally obviously true
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20% tax on expensive burgers to pay for universal childcare.
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Omg fully!
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💯 We have universal free higher education here in Denmark, that also comes w/ a living stipend. All paid for by a fair progressive tax system. Nobody begrudges the rich kid being there for free or sees the low-income kid as getting an unfair handout. Schools are all high quality so people want to go
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t's not an op ed! they really think this is the journalism we need
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France CRUSHES this. Free pre-school from the age of three. Includes lunch. It’s totally possible to have nice things.
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We do have means tested reduced-fee Amazon Prime memberships.
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The author's NYT profile is interesting:
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It's so frustrating how the importance of universalism isn't grasped by so many, especially among political elites. It's like asking if school should be free for rich kids or if those paying the most in taxes should be excluded from the schools they are paying for.

Same with why UBI must go to ALL.
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Obviously my head is in the wrong place but I'll take a guess that the take up will be from the slaves the rich people are forced to employ to tidy up their houses dropping their kids off as they go to work.
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They suck.
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Which we also have! In WA at least if you qualify for Medicaid you get discounted Prime. I assume it’s part of a tax break or something.
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it's national, same with discounted walmart+, my household has both!
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Most of the rich don’t want their kids mixing with ‘those kids,’ so they won’t use it, but will pay for private anyway. But they can have the option.
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Anything that doesn't directly involve persecution, blood and viscera, or blowing shit up won't sell to the evangelical white supremacist ghouls who are running things right now.

Doing nice things requires removing them from power.
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Wow free childcare is bad and women shouldn't vote all on the same day. What a shining bastion of woke the NYT is.
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Seems linked to me. “Why should childcare be free? Women can just take care of the kids…it’s not like they should have any other responsibilities!”
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This country is diseased. Rotten to the core.
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