Should we subsidize culture?

One of our goals here at IBC is to explore the role of culture in our lives, as a vehicle for elevating consciousness and positive change, but also as a business opportunity for culturally-minded entrepreneurs.

I recently posed a string of questions here about culture to kick off the exploration and have some Q&As in store which will hopefully shed some light on the matter…

In the meantime, in response to my culture pop quiz posted a few days back, one of IBC’s more intrepid readers has volunteered the following:

“Personally, I think government should play a part in supporting “culture” but they also need to allocate sufficient funds to this and appoint the right people in those positions. The last I heard, the U.S. govt continued to decrease funding in the arts & humanities (which was already a pitiful amount compared to Europe), and increased military spending instead. Very sad.”

What does everyone else think??

Should the government (tax-payers) subsidize culture? Put another way, should someone trying to make a living as an artist receive more support from the government than a fireman, or an entrepreneur?

(These are tough questions to answer, but I think they’re important ones. I’ve created a new Category called “O’s worldview project” to house the inquiry which, admittedly, is a little off-topic).

Eons ago, nobility and church patronized a few lucky and mostly hard-working artists, mostly for reasons of ego, it seems.

But today, with a 1/3 of humanity wired, fed & sheltered, there’s a large, liquid market for art in its many forms, enabling (for better or worse) people to pay to possess or experience it.

So today, does culture really need a prop to thrive? Does culture even want government meddling in its affairs? Only when it needs money, it seems, and then one has to ask, is it providing any value?

Because if it is, some one out there in this efficient market will surely pay for it. And if it isn’t, but Big Brother says it is, that sounds more like propaganda to me, not culture.

(As a counter-point to all this, for I’m still developing my thoughts, one could argue that every citizen in a free, democratic society has the right to justice, liberty, affordable health care, education and culture, meaning there’s a legitimate role for here for government, at least in areas of policy, if not direct subsidy. To illustrate, who should fund the string quartet playing in a hospital for the elderly?).

PS. I’ve tweaked the controls on this blog to make it very easy to comment so please, jump into the data stream if you feel inclined…