Library Policy Revisited

Democracy 4
1

It seems there isn’t much of a difference with libraries from Democracy 3. I’ve been thinking of how libraries benefit people and not just the elderly. Here’s my take on it.

I believe libraries in developed countries has a greater effect on income than raising education. I don’t think there’s that many people using the library to study and the wast majority use it to get entertainment. I believe those that benefits the most from libraries are those with lower income, the elderly and parents. It’s not a lot of money we are talking about but it’s still a little bit.

The poor:
The library is a good way to get free entertainment for those with lower income. While it doesn’t raise their income much because they already aren’t big spenders on physical copies of books and videos, some can use it as a means to get access to the Internet without paying for their own. They can also save from using the library’s own streaming website.

The elderly:
The elderly is known for reading books and the library saves them money. They are not known for getting reading material online.

Parents:
I believe parent are those that benefits the most from libraries. Usage and money wise. Instead of buying children books they can get those for free at the library. Not only does libraries provide free access to movies and comics they also offer video games and host events targeted for children.

To summarize I can picture these modifiers in the game:

Middle Income - a little bit if happiness and a minimal increase in income.
Lower Income - a bit higher happiness and income than middle income.
Retired - a generous amount of happiness and a small increase in income.
Parents - May not appreciate the library as much as the retired but is still very welcome. Highest amount of income gained.

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Interesting!

On the other hand, public libraries allow lots of young people to study or even self-employed people to work without having to rent expensive coworking spaces.

It depends on whether education is well funded, in which case we can assume that public high schools and universities have enough places for every student to work, but you can still find quite a few students in public libraries who prefer a quiet, studious space to work in rather than their little maid’s rooms or their bedrooms if they still live with their parents (where they may have to put up with their brothers and sisters haha).

So you could perhaps add that if higher education isn’t sufficiently funded, young people appreciate this policy because it gives them access to public workspaces (but it increases the cost of the policy).

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