Posted by Bill on May 06, 2003 at 16:32:03:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Our business posted by Rick Denney on May 06, 2003 at 16:02:37:
Rick,
Yes porn is not art. Of course if someone believed that it was, how could you disagree?
My main point is that society supports many things that are beneficial to itself. Some people think we spend too much on the military. Some people think we spend too much on school lunches. The fact of the matter is that the federal budget is mostly social security, medicare and paying interest on the debt. After that there is lots of disagreement on what needs money, on what deserves money, how much money, and some congress members try to get money going to their districts to help their reelection chances.
I agree with your beliefs in principal, but I'm not sure that in reality they work. If the arts don't get subsidized, then should I pay for new roads that allow people to move farther away from cities? I'm not moving. The roads exist already for me and my family, go build your own damn roads. There is enough housing in my area, why move far away? Or farm subsidies. Or tax breaks for buying really big SUVs. Or money for failing airlines. Or de-regulation of the electric market that allowed Enron to manipulate the market.
The system we have now does work. I wonder if scrapping the whole thing would be worth it.
Bill