Is important to use public funds to support the arts?

1. 51

   ciaranj123posted 11 years ago

   Is important to use public funds to support the arts?

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2. 74

   Dan Barfieldposted 11 years ago

   Yes. The arts enhance everybody's quality of life. Sure we are paying for the arts, but they are there to enrich the lives of the ones who are paying. If you do not take advantage of the plethora of enriching experiences that such funding provides that is your own foolish choice to make. The encouragement of creativity touches the lives of all of us in countless positive ways.

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      lone77starposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      We can enrich our lives without government digging into our pockets. Too much corruption.

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   MickSposted 11 years ago

   Yes.........................................................................

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   Borsiaposted 11 years ago

   No public funds shouldn't be used for such things.
   One need look no further than the projects that are funded, many if not most, are only art to the few who are lacking in common sense.
   As examples I would point to a 3/4" thick 12' x 15' sheet of bare steel placed upright next to a sidewalk. Not only was this an eyesore it became a hiding place for muggers.
   How about the "Sands of Time" the artist, and I use that term very loosely, traveled to a number of beaches and filled small cloth bags with sand. She then put the bags in a storage facility to "mature" and promptly stopped paying the monthly rent on the storage unit. The bags ended up on a pallet in a back lot where the bags soon fell apart spilling the "Sands of time",,, if I remember this was funded to the tune of $60k
   The bottom line is that no matter what you are talking about what is art to one is just crap to others.
   If something is truly art someone will buy it, if nobody buys it it's just junk.
   Stepping in with public funds just ends up with junk being called art, usually with a very high price tag.
   Further corrupting the system is the choices of those in charge. People who have way too much emotion and far too little sense. It becomes more about ego and power than proper use of public monies.
   In a time when the country is broke and plunging deeper into debt by the second such senseless spending cries out to be abolished.

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      Dan Barfieldposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      If you check the national statistics, I think you'll find that due to an economic phenomenon known as the 'multiplier effect' every dollar spent by the government on the arts returns $1.36 within 12 months. This is because of economic spinnoffs.

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      lone77starposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I wish more people had common sense like this. Thank you!

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      Borsiaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I don't see any spin offs from bad "so called" art being funded with public money. When I see some silly or ugly "art" I don't run out and spend a dime.

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5. 71

   lone77starposted 11 years ago

   No.
   
   Government should get out of all businesses except those explicitly laid out in the Constitution. Here, I'm talking about American government, but I'd highly recommend this for all nations.
   
   Art is good, but government in art is a travesty and an abomination. Government in medicine, education, energy, food,... you name it, government has corrupted them all. They only "seem" to be doing good to mask more and more corruption. And now, in America, it's gotten so far out of hand that we have runaway national debt and the elected officials don't seem to care.
   
   Senator Rand Paul recently complained to his fellow senators that they were breaking their own rules. He had been handed a 600-page bill earlier that morning and they were going to vote on it in 30 minutes. No time to read, much less study and understand. That's insanity. And things had been added into the bill in the wee hours of the night before. Someone is yanking the puppet strings and the direction does not look good.
   
   When two presidential conventions can be held (2012) and both of them ignore the votes of the assembled body, you have to know that the republic is gasping its last breath of freedom. America is nearly dead, and it's because of things like "art" programs that masked the real tyranny. They give so many "treats," with one hand, while murdering and enslaving with the other. It's now a felony to protest what the government is doing (HR 347). Individuals can now be locked up indefinitely and not charged with any crime. Obama promised to restore habeas corpus, but after 4+ years, he hasn't gotten around to it. Sweet lies.
   
   Taking money from citizens to give to others is theft. Let's stop the corruption and get back to the simplicity of government ensuring a safe place for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
   
   I'm sure enterprising artists will find a way to do their thing. They always have. I was once a Hollywood artist. Even got myself some screen credit.

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      Dan Barfieldposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I do agree that corruption is a problem and who decides who gets funding should certainly be given an overhaul... but from the reading I've done even with corruption the govnt gets a huge return from the arts which goes back into the public fund.

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      MickSposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I didn't realise that America has a government. In which part of America is it based, north, central, or south America, or one of the independent off shore islands.
      Govt should support arts to ensure all can enjoy them, not just those with money.

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