{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "This is flatly, literally, directly untrue. Tax-funded public libraries and fire companies didn\u2019t catch on until the late 19th...", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/156952116668/", "html": "

This is flatly, literally, directly untrue. Tax-funded public libraries and fire companies didn\u2019t catch on until the late 19th century, but society had supported literacy and fire suppression long before that, through indirect subsidy.\n

\nPeriodical mailing rates at or below cost propped up circulation and made a subscription model viable, and requirements to publish legal notices and records of proceedings ensured that newspapermen and printing houses were kept afloat with a regular supply of business.\n

\nFire companies - well you do sometimes see appropriations for capital outlays like fire engines but for operating expenses many did operate as fire insurance (by government charter), fund themselves through salvage rights, or by lotteries and tontines (by special government approval, compare how many current US states restrict \u201cgames of chance\u201d like Bingo to charitable fundraising).\n

\nThis is dumb

\n", "thumbnail_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/media/tumblr_ol12rekS8b1qeywqoo1_1280_4decb23fd117.jpg", "thumbnail_width": 708, "thumbnail_height": 241}