Jamie Loftus

The idea that everything should be run by a business and everything should be subject to market logics, that would say, well, if we're going to subject everything to market logics, libraries have no value because we're only measuring it. And can this make number go up? Yeah. And even though libraries do make number go up, it's not obvious. You can't make it obvious.

The idea that everything should be run by a business and everything should be subject to market logics, that would say, well, if we're going to subject everything to market logics, libraries have no value because we're only measuring it. And can this make number go up? Yeah. And even though libraries do make number go up, it's not obvious. You can't make it obvious.

There's no direct line between what libraries do and number go up, even though there actually is, for example, with IMLS. So, you know, starting during the Clinton administration, when the federal government changed and how the federal government worked changed very much under the guise of increasing service quality, what they actually did was lay off a quarter million workers and

There's no direct line between what libraries do and number go up, even though there actually is, for example, with IMLS. So, you know, starting during the Clinton administration, when the federal government changed and how the federal government worked changed very much under the guise of increasing service quality, what they actually did was lay off a quarter million workers and

There's no direct line between what libraries do and number go up, even though there actually is, for example, with IMLS. So, you know, starting during the Clinton administration, when the federal government changed and how the federal government worked changed very much under the guise of increasing service quality, what they actually did was lay off a quarter million workers and

you know, turn everything into contract work instead of regular labor. And that, I think, filtered down from the federal level into states and municipalities so that those levels of government too also started to look at how they ran

you know, turn everything into contract work instead of regular labor. And that, I think, filtered down from the federal level into states and municipalities so that those levels of government too also started to look at how they ran

you know, turn everything into contract work instead of regular labor. And that, I think, filtered down from the federal level into states and municipalities so that those levels of government too also started to look at how they ran

they're government things and in many places public libraries are arms of local government, that those two should also be run like a business and be subject to market logics and therefore number does not go up, we don't value this.

they're government things and in many places public libraries are arms of local government, that those two should also be run like a business and be subject to market logics and therefore number does not go up, we don't value this.

they're government things and in many places public libraries are arms of local government, that those two should also be run like a business and be subject to market logics and therefore number does not go up, we don't value this.

And that's basically it, is that it's hard now that we've had 30 years of overt neoliberalism in our government system and a couple of decades more of less obvious versions of it to make government, which is now being run like a business, even in the best of times, value things that aren't valued strictly monetarily. So there's no cultural value.

And that's basically it, is that it's hard now that we've had 30 years of overt neoliberalism in our government system and a couple of decades more of less obvious versions of it to make government, which is now being run like a business, even in the best of times, value things that aren't valued strictly monetarily. So there's no cultural value.

And that's basically it, is that it's hard now that we've had 30 years of overt neoliberalism in our government system and a couple of decades more of less obvious versions of it to make government, which is now being run like a business, even in the best of times, value things that aren't valued strictly monetarily. So there's no cultural value.

And even if the monetary value isn't extremely obvious, it somehow doesn't count.

And even if the monetary value isn't extremely obvious, it somehow doesn't count.

And even if the monetary value isn't extremely obvious, it somehow doesn't count.

Right. And then, you know, even though cops also don't make money in a direct sense, somehow we can still fund that. So it really shows that, like, in the case of where you are, the carceral solution is now the only solution we have. Yeah. And when we sit here as abolitionists and we say, well, let's get rid of all that stuff, and people say, well, what are you going to do instead?

Right. And then, you know, even though cops also don't make money in a direct sense, somehow we can still fund that. So it really shows that, like, in the case of where you are, the carceral solution is now the only solution we have. Yeah. And when we sit here as abolitionists and we say, well, let's get rid of all that stuff, and people say, well, what are you going to do instead?

Right. And then, you know, even though cops also don't make money in a direct sense, somehow we can still fund that. So it really shows that, like, in the case of where you are, the carceral solution is now the only solution we have. Yeah. And when we sit here as abolitionists and we say, well, let's get rid of all that stuff, and people say, well, what are you going to do instead?