Subject:
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Re: Misperceptions of America (Was: Conversation w/ a LEGO Rep)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Thu, 26 Aug 1999 23:40:47 GMT
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Reply-To:
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lpieniazek@/Spamless/novera.com
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Viewed:
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2124 times
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Ed Jones wrote:
>
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> > Ed Jones wrote (in several different posts):
> >
> > > I am appalled that you find the National Endowmnet of the Arts
> > > a waste of taxpayer money.
> >
> > Apparently you didn't get your money's worth from the other NEA either,
> > I see a typo in there somewhere. <grins, ducks and runs, t7pos are a
> > cheap shot, not worthy of an opponent of Ed's calibre>
>
> Hey, I'm still typing one handed, give me a break (sorry, the right arm is
> broke and ya can;t break it again - actually not broke, just unusable due to a
> pinched nerve)
Ouch. I feel your pain. (the one good thing That Man did for this
country is put that phrase into circulation) I'll give you a break. Or
is that I WON'T give you a(nother) break. Whichever.
> > But seriously, it IS a waste. See my thread a while back about art being
> > worth what a willing buyer will pay for it. The art the NEA funds
> > doesn't seem to have any willing buyers (else why would they fund it?),
> > so it must indeed be worthless. Please explain what could be more of a
> > waste than spending our money on worthless goods?
>
> Not wanting to go into the Libertarian debate of "earning your keep",
Because...?
> the
> majority of those with a poor opinion of the NEA got it from Helms and the
> others who focused on a few artists who received a minisucle amount of the
> endowments funds.
Not me. If you think I'm going to let some senile old obstructionist
bigot who happens to be a US senator tell me how to think, you really
haven't been paying attention. :-) Let's focus on why **I** think the
NEA is a waste, shall we, instead of attacking strawmen arguments I
didn't make. He happens to be right in this case but even a stopped
clock is right twice a day (1)
> The NEA mostly funds local arts groups, symphonies, dance,
> opera, concerts, as well as special performances for children that would be
> unavailable without that funding. They also provide funding to PBS. As most
> American schools have now cut or removed their art and music programs, very few
> children would have any exposure to the arts without the NEA grants. Ex: the
> Metropolitan Opera has a traveling program to introduce children to opera that
> is partially funded by the NEA. Is that an example of the waste that you see?
Yes.
Pretty cut and dried, and we've been over this before... Bad charity
money drives out good. Government money, coming from an ill defined
source with no real check or balance or market driven allocation scheme,
is bad money. If these are worthy causes, let private charity fund them.
If they are not worthy of private charity funding, they should not be
done. Some of them, indeed, are not worthy, in my estimation (2), and I
would specifically choose not to fund them had I the choice.
I think Mike S adequately covers the point about funding for arts in
schools. Suffice it to say our family puts our money where our mouth is
there, Jo has helped run the arts program in our school system for 3
years now. Note that if I could afford it, I would put my kids in
private school, but I cannot, or choose not to make the sacrifice that
being doubly "taxed" entails. Therefore I have chosen to live in the
best public school district I can afford to, and it still have egregious
flaws.
If you say that people don't give enough to private charity, consider
whether they would give more, or less, than they do now if they paid
less in taxes to fund things involuntarily.
I say people are good and they would give more if they had more.
If you say they would not, you are denying that people are basically
good and kind and honest. Therefore you are not life affirming. ;-)
1 - Only once a day if it's on a military base. There's a moral in there
somewhere...
2 - Many of these programs (such as PBS) are politically slanted and
would well have to change their ways if they had to compete in the
market of ideas for funding. I don't donate to PBS, although I watch
it... my tax dollars paid for it, long ago.
--
Larry Pieniazek larryp@novera.com http://my.voyager.net/lar
- - - Web Application Integration! http://www.novera.com
fund Lugnet(tm): http://www.ebates.com/ Member ref: lar, 1/2 $$ to
lugnet.
NOTE: I have left CTP, effective 18 June 99, and my CTP email
will not work after then. Please switch to my Novera ID.
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