In a constantly evolving world, enhanced by technology it may seem counterintuitive to say that some things should remain the same, but sorry folks newer isn't always better. A professor of economics at LIU post in New York, Panos Mourdoukoutas, learned this the hard way. He penned an op-ed to Forbes titles "Amazon Should Replace Local Libraries to Save Taxpayers Money" and people were furious and bewildered.
His primary argument was that it would save taxpayers money while raising the stock of Amazon. Well, it didn't take long for the internet to poke several holes in this theory, pointing out the high price of buying books vs borrowing and how libraries, in fact, return money back to the economy. Mourdoukoutas went on to say that with streaming services such as Amazon and Netflix people no longer rented DVDs (who among us is actually paying for our own Netflix account?). Lastly, the economist said that with places like Starbucks they had become obsolete as "third place" meeting spaces. Ask the manager at your local Starbs how they feel about holding a public kids puppet show at one of their booths, the answer will probably be no. Good thing there is a local library for that.
Scroll down below for people's reactions and comments to the article and share your own thoughts!
His primary argument was that it would save taxpayers money while raising the stock of Amazon. Well, it didn't take long for the internet to poke several holes in this theory, pointing out the high price of buying books vs borrowing and how libraries, in fact, return money back to the economy. Mourdoukoutas went on to say that with streaming services such as Amazon and Netflix people no longer rented DVDs (who among us is actually paying for our own Netflix account?). Lastly, the economist said that with places like Starbucks they had become obsolete as "third place" meeting spaces. Ask the manager at your local Starbs how they feel about holding a public kids puppet show at one of their booths, the answer will probably be no. Good thing there is a local library for that.
Scroll down below for people's reactions and comments to the article and share your own thoughts!
A professor of economics at LIU Post in New York wrote a controversial article on the replaceability of libraries for Forbes
Librarians everywhere weren't happy about it
The author tried to explain himself
But needless to say, it didn't go well
The article has since been taken down, but people have still shared more of their opinions on the matter
