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Bill: Libraries Development Act
Details
Submitted by[?]: United Liberal Alliance
Status[?]: passed
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: November 2111
Description[?]:
| Many so called 'public services' can actually be provided much better by the private sector than they can by the state, with the state simply providing oversight and regulation to ensure standards. This act would set up the Telamon Library Agency (TLA) to contract with private companies to provide a system of libraries. Obviously they would be required to provide books from all kinds of genres etc. and the basic service of borrowing books would remain free. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change The government's policy towards the funding of libraries.
Old value:: The national government provides local governments with funding to operate libraries.
Current: The national government controls a vast and comprehensive system of public libraries.
Proposed: The national government contracts with private companies to maintain a system of libraries.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 14:38:58, September 13, 2005 CET | From | Rationalist Party | To | Debating the Libraries Development Act |
| Message | If private companies are to be paid by the government to provide a free service, where is the savings? We still have the red tape because you need to have civil servents who oversee the whole network, and now you have to pay a company so they can make money. This makes no sense. |
| Date | 19:35:24, September 13, 2005 CET | From | United Liberal Alliance | To | Debating the Libraries Development Act |
| Message | Nowhere does it say that the government would pay companies to provide a free service. It says that the government contracts with private companies to run them and that the basic service of borrowing books must be free. This can be done through the provision of other services within the libraries such as night classes, internet access, cafes and other services which companies can provide within the libraries, which must be paid for. It is also possible that whilst the basic service of withdrawing books might be free to ensure that everyone has access it may be that if you want to withdraw more than a certain number of books, you have to pay a small fee and of course the imposition of fines. All these can provide mechanisms of revenue which can make libraries profitable and subsidise the basic library service. The term agency in the proposal is loosely used, for a small staff of civil servants who administer the contracts and ensure that they are adhered to. Therefore in fact red tape is cut, as are the number of civil servants when compared to those currently needed to administer and run the public library system. Also, the government saves money as it does not have to pay for the staff, the cost of running and cleaning the libraries etc. and will pay less or indeed nothing for the upkeep of the buildings. |
| Date | 23:54:06, September 14, 2005 CET | From | Rationalist Party | To | Debating the Libraries Development Act |
| Message | Just that that's the usual argument for privatization |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 130 | ||||
| no |
Total Seats: 111 | ||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 14 |
| Random fact: "Nation raiding" or a malevolent coordinated effort by a single user or group of users to interrupt the gameplay, significantly alter the culture or direction of a nation is strictly prohibited. Players interacting in nation raiding will be sanctioned. |
| Random quote: "Civil disobedience. . . is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem." - Howard Zinn |