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geny, probably both. What sense does that make?
The government performs its annual shell game and designates “offbudget” items, but there is no free lunch. At the end of the month, the credit card bills arrive. The federal government can stretch a month into 50 years, but the mailman is on the way, and we and our children and grandchildren are going to have to pay those bills.
A lot has been written recently about the NEA. In my opinion art subsidy is not the proper concern of government, and most assuredly not a debt-ridden government.
OK, so the government pays farmers to grow crops; the government buys cheese by the tons to “help” dairy farmers; the government does a lot of things it shouldn’t do, even if it had a cash surplus. But two (or many) wrongs do not make a right. If people want cheese, for God’s sake, they’ll buy cheese! If farmers can’t sell a crop, they’ll plant something else.
So, if you’re writing books or painting pictures or playing the zither or making wrought iron doodads, and you run into a long stretch of red ink, maybe you’d better consider doing something else.
What works for cheese works for art. A free market may not be perfect, but at least it represents transactions in which both parties are in contractual and voluntary agreement. If you want to support local art, by all means get out your check book and do so. But let it be your choice and your decision.
And if you’re an artist and you’re not yet making enough money, keep your day job. And your self respect. Don’t place’the burden on those who maybe can’t afford it, and those whose aesthetic preference are not yours and the NEA’s.
The NEA debate is not about nickels and dimes at tax time, or stingy, rich people who don’t want to help poor artists. It’s not about Jesse Helms and Joe Sixpack versus the academic elite. There is a higher principle at stake, and poor artists have just as much to lose as the rich
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