Just Say No To Arts Funding

Poor people pay taxes. Yet we take their money and give it to opera, jazz and unfunny sitcoms about Muslims in the prairies. Perhaps contemporary paintings with vertical lines are worth a million dollars of someone's money, but not the money of someone who cleans toilets all day.

Perhaps that is my hidden agenda: Rich people, you can have your subsidized opera when dishwashers get to be tax exempt just like they generally are in the United States. Raise the basic tax exemption, then you can have your jazz festivals.

I don't clean toilets all day. And frankly, I probably get my money's worth when it comes arts funding. But should my government be encouraging me to watch Canadian TV, instead of perhaps exercising when I'm done watching the limited amount of American shows that are of interest? Should federal tax dollars in effect discourage local culture, encouraging people to watch "art" made in other regions of Canada?

In a rich society, especially one affected by winter like Canada's, art is important. But thanks to technology, we have many ways of charging people for what they enjoy. The justification for tax dollar use is less compelling. Art is no longer street lighting, it is lighting in your home, and people can charge you for that.

I don't know what the basic tax exemption would have to before I'd support art funding. I just know it has to be higher than whatever a toilet cleaner earns.