Inspired by this article Trump wants to cut the NEA and NEH. This is the worst-case scenario for arts groups
I've been in the entertainment industry my entire life, and I listen to NPR, every day. I say . . . slash and burn. Cut all federal arts funding. Here's why:
1 - It's inarguably unconstitutional. The Founders rejected proposals to establish arts funding at the Constitutional Convention -- recognizing it was antithetical to their ideals of limited government, and they knew from their European heritage that it amounted to nothing more than welfare for cultural elitists.
2 - Not only are there no provisions for arts funding enumerated in the Constitution, the NEA, NEH, PBS, and NPR are necessarily put in the position of using federal funds to favor certain expression above others. Nothing could be more contrary to the American principle of equality before the law. And if speech is to truly be free, how can we condone one group's expression receiving funding and favoritism above all others?
3 - The cultural elites who mostly benefit from these funds can easily make them up through private giving. Either Gates or Buffett, alone, could stroke a check for the entire arts budget, and never live long enough to be worth less than $50 billion, each. And that's just two men. The total federal arts funding is just a drop in the bucket of the charitable giving capabilities of those who will most loudly shriek and moan at the prospects of these cuts.
4 - As with all industries infiltrated by federal dollars, the quality of the service suffers and prices are out of the reach of commoners. Since the establishment of the Depts. of Education, and Health, test scores have fallen, quality of health services have suffered, and prices have outpaced inflation 8-10 times. The same happens in the arts. When we compete in the free market, we have to produce a product better and more attractive than what is being delivered down the street by our competitors -- or we do not survive.
For most of us in the entertainment industry, survival-of-the-fittest competition remains a daily fact of life. For those very few favored by federal funding, they have an entrenched sense of entitlement, and a belief that without those funds their artistic niche will fade into oblivion. Well, I've got news for them: if not enough people care about their crap to buy it or fund it via private contributions and endowments, oblivion is exactly its deserved resting place. Putting the government gun to my head and forcing me to pay for your art by means of my tax return, is no more morally justified than kidnapping me, tying me up in a basement, and forcing my to listen to Kanye for 72 straight hours. The latter of which will earn you a prison sentence.
All that said . . . I have my doubts either Trump or Congress will follow through in this regard. The GOP Congress has not the cojones -- and Trump is aware of that fact -- allowing him to make such promises to his fan club, and subsequently blame Congress upon failure to deliver.