Comments on: Sacrifices Must be Made

By: Mr. Kat

Mr. Kat — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 08:58:40 +0000

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/2010_Receipts_%26_Expenditures_Estimates.PNG

Blue is Income, red is expenditures, all estimates…anyone else notice that even if we closed everything and JUST spent on the military, we couldn’t even afford half of our current military budget??? How dire does it need to get before we actually put on the glasses and make the hard cuts in Mandatory Spending that we have to make??

By: Mr. Kat

Mr. Kat — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 08:50:34 +0000

The DoD budget has increased by more than 10% over the last two decades.

Ok…20 years, and each year the adjustment for inflation is what, 3%-4%? If we tallied up 20 years of proper increases, then the total increase in defense spending since 1990 should be a 60% to 80%, No?

Or another way to put this, A 10% increase over 20 years yeilds a .05% per year. That’s way below 3-4% inflation. It sounds to me like Defense has been getting the short end of the stick.

There’s a 500 lb gorilla in the room, and his name in Entitlement. And he constitutes far more of the budget than the military…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget

By: overmatik

overmatik — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:51:07 +0000

Cuts will indeed happen on the public sector, and libraires will suffer a lot. As far as the military is concerned, get real folks, the only way for the funding is up. The military owns this country.

By: wiunion

wiunion — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 06:31:48 +0000

How about let’s not ask AL to address the ALA stance on collective bargaining. As a graduate student attending a university that is already feeling the negative effects of this bill and budget, someone seeking a job most likely in the public sector, and a mother to someone who will be attending this state’s public schools in a few short years, I really don’t need to hear what I expect to be a bunch of vitriol towards public workers. And, yes, as someone in the eye of the storm, it has everything to do with both public and academic librarians.

Love the blog, but since I don’t believe I’ve read one positive note on ALA here, let’s just not invite this one, please.

By: Randal Powell

Randal Powell — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 20:22:11 +0000

You should not discount the power of marketing Rolling Eyes Librarian. Coca Cola makes around 6.8 billion dollars a year off of well-marked sugar water.

By: rollingeyeslibrarian

rollingeyeslibrarian — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 23:41:48 +0000

It appears we need more Bobs in this round of commentary. I agree with him with a capital A. When the overblown budget is more evenly managed, and we stop playing the penny-wise, pound poor game with federal finances, then and only then will I support a leaner structure for libraries. If we are to be valued by our communities and local government structures, we cannot cut staff to the point where we have no partnering ability to make a community difference with literacy or helping people learn computers to find jobs. According to ICMA’s report, these are the things people want libraries to do in these times, yet government is self-endorsing at every level the necessity to take away our ability to do these essential functions to get us back on track. Must I remind everyone that most libraries never had the luxury to exist in any fashion of state of grace so taking away from our local funding when they are repeatedly stripping services that have already been paired down in other departments still makes little sense. Most of us have simply never existed with the apportioned fat funding that other departments did so that we would not become circumspect for cutting in leaner budget years. And we do realize the state of our budgets. Libraries watch as every department gets year and year in most cases. Perhaps the better question here is, “What are we not doing collectively to prove our worth?” We are supposed to be key in getting our communities back to work. Perhaps the most crucial question is “Where are the jobs?” as it does no one any good to create an even more competitive market with no jobs to support it. Now that is the real answer to growing the economy. The truth is no one is going to miss our not being open for business if we are not making ourselves a real necessity. With all that said and including the ability to put my self-interest aside, I absolutely acknowledge Ben’s point that we are a bunch of ridiculously indoctrinated people who refuse to look at reality when it takes us out of our convenience model for any reason. I am glad someone recognizes this and readily acknowledges it. I’m not convinced that outsourcing the whole of our work is innovation but the fact is we are agenda-oriented and tremendously manipulative when spinning our own justification for protection against earnest work in some cases and certainly when thoughts of being marginalized are weighed. Yes, we have a tendency to indemnify everything in our power rather than to look at the whole of humanity or even the bettering of our own communities. Getting people in the door with fancy titling of institutions, branding and so forth is not going to improve government’s need to see us as imperative when looking at harshly strapped budgets. It’s going to cause them to see us as the circumspect, hair-brained, spend-thrift charlatans we are being. We need to be concentrating on product and services, not building improvements…and fancy labeling service models! We are sending the wrong messages to our leaders at the wrong time! What are we offering them that can’t be lost?

By: LittleLibrarian

LittleLibrarian — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 17:13:02 +0000

Yes, we do not need more PhD’s right now, and we do not need to be stepping into the fray over collective bargaining. What will it take for there to be a rational discussion over the deficit?

By: Keytar Girl

Keytar Girl — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 05:28:30 +0000

You know how many people outside of the library field care about this? None.

I can think of a dozen national issues that are more pressing than this issue is to me. So I might lose my library job due to funding. Guess what? That’s the reality of many professions these days. I’ll just get a straw and suck it up and move on.

Your blog is refreshing. Some library bloggers and commentators can be so whiny at times.

By: D

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 01:28:21 +0000

While I don’t miss the lies, torture, administrative incompetence, oppression of gay people, and economic meltdown we experienced under George W. Bush, even a liberal like me agrees that the criticism of President Obama in the School Library Journal article for his cuts of federal spending on libraries is misguided. Schools and public libraries are administered at the local level through cities, counties, and states. It’s not reasonable to expect federal funding of local government. We should probably eliminate the IMLS entirely. This won’t put much of a dent in the deficit, but since we decided that schools and public libraries are best governed at the local level, we should stop devoting federal funds to schools, public libraries, and other local government agencies.

By: Spekkio

Spekkio — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 20:32:48 +0000

@Sean Mars
Quick correction…Social Security doesn’t add to the deficit. It never has. A minor adjustment to Social Security taxes would shore the program up beyond 2030.

Otherwise, I agree about making more serious cuts to Defense. Medicare and Medicaid…well, the PPACA (derogatory term: “ObamaCare”) includes provisions to try to at least reduce their spending growth. Further reforms could make even more of a difference without harming people’s health. (For example: allow the Federal government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to get lower prices on commonly-used medications.)

To get back on the topic of libraries…I agree pretty much entirely about the “21st Century Librarian Program.” The last thing we need is more LIS PhDs. The school library program…I’d like to know what the funds get spent on. If it’s for up-to-date reference materials, that’s one thing. If it’s to replace worn-out copies of those horrid “Twilight” books, that’s another matter entirely.