Hard to feel a lot of sympathy for people who routinely want government funding and expect others to be taxed in order to provide it. On the other hand, can't see why the sports fans shouldn't have to cough up some extra shekels.
A dent in my extreme-liberal armor is taxes. I think that everything ought to be taxed equally or not at all. This includes churches and other houses of worship and do-gooder institutions of all stripes, even the not-so-dubious ones. Why should I be shocked by giving money to arts organizations? We give money to sports all the time. It would be hard for me to count the number of professional stadiums just here in the state of Wisconsin that have been built because “the people” agreed to tax themselves to keep a team in town. Thus I am not shocked that “the people” of a county here agreed to tax themselves to keep a manufacturing plant moving from here to Oklahoma. THAT state then demanded ITS money back from the company, which had extorted it from Oklahoma with a promise to move from here to there. Maybe artists should threaten to move to another state if they don’t get their way?
Excellent pint, Roger. I had forgotten all the taxpayer money that went into the stadiums here. Of course, I shell out much bucks for the Philadelphia Orchestra every year - not just for tickets; I also donate to their fund. The arts venues do generate revenue people go to dinner before concerts, and often stop for a drink or snack afterward. Of course, most of the politicians are uncultured louts.
Considering the arts budget is a tiny fraction of a percent relative to other types of government spending, including the huge amounts (basically civic bribes) put into local infrastructure to attract and keep sports teams in their cities, I find this laughable. It's like penalizing the mosquito when Dracula has already sucked you mostly dry. It's purely a matter of scale.
I recall several recent instances of baseball teams basically saying to their cities, "Build us a new stadium or we're outta here," and expecting that money to from the cities—i.e. the taxpayers. Meanwhile, the arts survive almost entirely on patronage and donations, while the percentage of actual tax money that goes to support the arts is very small.
So this is beyond ridiculous.
It does point out once again, however, how much our culture is skewed away from understanding and supporting the arts vs. sports. Booster clubs for high school football are considered normal, while the same sort of booster clubs for the high school orchestra are considered insane. High school bands don't count because they're so closely tied to their school sports programs.
A dent in my extreme-liberal armor is taxes. I think that everything ought to be taxed equally or not at all. This includes churches and other houses of worship and do-gooder institutions of all stripes, even the not-so-dubious ones. Why should I be shocked by giving money to arts organizations? We give money to sports all the time. It would be hard for me to count the number of professional stadiums just here in the state of Wisconsin that have been built because “the people” agreed to tax themselves to keep a team in town. Thus I am not shocked that “the people” of a county here agreed to tax themselves to keep a manufacturing plant moving from here to Oklahoma. THAT state then demanded ITS money back from the company, which had extorted it from Oklahoma with a promise to move from here to there. Maybe artists should threaten to move to another state if they don’t get their way?
ReplyDeleteExcellent pint, Roger. I had forgotten all the taxpayer money that went into the stadiums here. Of course, I shell out much bucks for the Philadelphia Orchestra every year - not just for tickets; I also donate to their fund. The arts venues do generate revenue people go to dinner before concerts, and often stop for a drink or snack afterward. Of course, most of the politicians are uncultured louts.
ReplyDelete"Phila. Orchestra needs $15 million."
ReplyDeleteConsidering the arts budget is a tiny fraction of a percent relative to other types of government spending, including the huge amounts (basically civic bribes) put into local infrastructure to attract and keep sports teams in their cities, I find this laughable. It's like penalizing the mosquito when Dracula has already sucked you mostly dry. It's purely a matter of scale.
ReplyDeleteI recall several recent instances of baseball teams basically saying to their cities, "Build us a new stadium or we're outta here," and expecting that money to from the cities—i.e. the taxpayers. Meanwhile, the arts survive almost entirely on patronage and donations, while the percentage of actual tax money that goes to support the arts is very small.
So this is beyond ridiculous.
It does point out once again, however, how much our culture is skewed away from understanding and supporting the arts vs. sports. Booster clubs for high school football are considered normal, while the same sort of booster clubs for the high school orchestra are considered insane. High school bands don't count because they're so closely tied to their school sports programs.