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Comment by joeblubaugh | Hacker News Reader

They also charge a pretty hefty membership fee if you’re not at least a PR, and charge for physical book reservations. It was pretty shocking for me after the California library system.

And I’m a taxpayer. Net, I pay more taxes than a citizen with the same income.

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> Net, I pay more taxes than a citizen with the same income.

No you don't, most foreigners don't pay more taxes overall per lifetime.

Surely the reasonable metric is per year rather than per lifetime given that adult immigrants don't use education and childhood services.

No, because you also do not serve in the army, nor (generally) produce children that will become citizens and thus build the population.

Education and childhood services are pennies to what the country needs in terms of patriotic duty and population building.

For libraries, does it really matter who pays taxes and who doesn’t? Seems like it’s a public good that should be available regardless of ability to pay.

Exactly my point, annual fees should be zero but instead certain legal residents have to pay higher ones.

> They also charge a pretty hefty membership fee if you’re not at least a PR

It's $43.60 per year [1].

Thank you for contributing a bit more to the library's budget…?

[1] https://www.nlb.gov.sg/main/services/library-membership/type...

In the US, annual library fees are $0, incredibly.

Maybe I shouldn’t complain, they also seem to think $35 is a reasonable price for a mass-market paperback here.

Work out with a friend to share his library card?

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