so it begins

For public libraries, one of the ways we secure funding year to year is lending. Governments don’t want to fund more books if they’re not being used and the way we measure use is by issues. Regardless of whether you read it or not, whether you have it for a day or a month, if you issue it to your library card, we get the stats! It makes the library look good!

No subscription. Just program.

On your computer. You got to use it forever and ever and never had to worry about it going away.

Because it was physically on your computer. As a program. That you actually owned. Not because you got it separately, but because it was a standard inclusion with your computer.

I'm sorry but I'll just never get over it. I remember when companies cared about their products being usable out of the box. I remember when our things belonged to us.

They knew what I was looking for right off the bat xD

According to the Abstract for an article titled "Addressing Hate: Georgia, the IRS, and the Ku Klux Klan," written by Samuel D. Brunson, Loyola University Chicago School of Law (because I cannot tell if I can actually read the article), the KKK officially suspended its operations in 1944. And then ended in its entirety two years later. "In 1944 the Bureau of Internal Revenue assessed a $685,305 tax on the Klan and, when the Klan did not pay, filed a lien." This was because the Klan had made itself a Georgia Fraternal Organization in 1916, "...following a model of the Masons and other fraternal organizations." Evidently, they also claimed to be a "...tax-exempt fraternal beneficiary society under the new federal income tax." So they basically had legal rights, benefits, and respect within the community in part due to this legal status. But because they couldn't pay up, they violated their corporate charter and tax-exempt fraternal beneficiary terms. This left the state of Georgia no choice but to revoke the Corporate Charter. Now, obviously, this wouldn't be enough to cause the Klan to cease to exist, but it certainly didn't help. (Source: Samuel D. Brunson, Addressing Hate: Georgia, the IRS, and the Ku Klux Klan, 41 VA. TAX REV. 45 (2021).

Now, further digging has made it evident that other White Supremacist groups and similar reprehensible organizations of the modern United States enjoy tax benefits, public subsidies, the legal status of being a charity, and so on. That's not something that makes me jump with joy. And it shouldn't be allowed. But, you know, here we are.