this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2024
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We live in a system that actively prevents humans to get more knowledge, go figure.
We live in a system that monetizes everything, then seeks to restrict access to those things in order to profit.
Knowledge is just one casualty.
Scarcity is money and if there is no scarcity laws will be bought to to artificially create said scarcity.
No one is preventing you from visiting a library, which would be a fesible alternative.
However, not a simple solution for everyone in every country. Knowlegde should be a free and shared common good.
That depends on where you live. The Internet Archive is far more accessible than a good library, for much of the global populace.
And my library doesn't have every book I want to read.
Yes, I know. That's why I said:
It's not even limited by country. There are far too many places in well resourced countries that don't have access to good (or any) libraries.
~~He's also a corrupt cop, but I repeat myself.~~
Meant to reply to the comment above yours.
Libraries where good for before the XXI century. Nowadays the amount of content they had is pretty small. Most libraries don't really has anything but the more famous books.
They became community hubs that offer more than just books. Even ebooks albeit that being weirdly capped by publishers as well.
They do much more than public opinion would make you believe.
True, but that doesn't change the fact that specific books can be hard to find. Libraries are great, but they don't solve the problem IA solves.
We got a nationwide network of specific books. You can order books to your local library if you are a little patient. They might not have a lot of selfpublished books but that is a problem of scale and negotiating power of publishers.
That's pretty sweet! I grew up in an area with a county system, so you could get books from anywhere in the system (a dozen or so citires serving >1M people).
My current library is just our city, but I can go to a few other cities to check out books, but I can't use holds there unless I pay $2-3/item to have it delivered to my library. We have a statewide ebook/audiobook network (serves 3-4M people), so that's nice.
Well, except scumbags like eric adams, NYC's bought-owned-and-operated-by-real-estate-interests mayor.
He's also a corrupt cop, but I repeat myself.