Sunday, July 19, 2020

Cowen Calls for Bailout of U.S. State and Local Governments With a Central Planning Art Scheme



Tyler Cowen, an economics professor at the heavily Koch-funded George Mason University, in his latest Bloomberg column is calling for bailouts, with a special emphasis on the arts, of states and cities.

He writes:
First, the federal government should proceed with plans to offer significant aid to state and local governments. That package should be modified, however, to devote more money to regions where the arts are crucial. That would include New York City most of all, which remains America’s arts capital and No. 1 cultural tourist draw. Also on the list might be Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, Austin and Santa Fe, among other significant cultural centers.
This sounds to me like some type of elitist central planning.

His proposal gets even more statist technocratic further in his article:
The second element of the arts rescue plan would take a different tack. Rather than giving money to arts institutions, the federal government could set aside some amount for a concept known as arts vouchers, originally developed by the British economist Alan Peacock.

Arts vouchers are similar to education vouchers except that they cover the arts. The government would hand them out to each American and allow state and local governments to specify which institutions and individuals would be eligible to receive such vouchers as payment. Unlike direct grants to arts institutions, arts vouchers give consumers a big say in where aid goes. They could be more popular with voters, because they give each one a direct benefit — namely, cash in pocket (yes, they would have to spend it on the arts, but it’s still cash).

Most of all, vouchers would recognize that planning authorities, even at state and local levels, don’t always know which artistic forms will be popular. 
Of course, Cowen is deceptive by calling this choice by consumers. First, it would be only government-approved art. And, beyond that, it would be stuffing this government-approved art on consumers even if they would want to spend the money elsewhere.

This is horrific.

It is three-dimensional central planning.

And need I add that the federal government has no money for this madness?

It would result in even more aggressive Fed money printing out of thin air.

-RW


3 comments:

  1. Translation: We design the economy but we charge the "consumers" with giving us some sort of feedback. They just aren't allowed to go outside of the industries we've chosen to force feed. Free market now means that "You are free to choose but stay in THIS market". The enemies of liberty have been utterly genius and patient operators.

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  2. Wow! Either Cowen really believes that the federal government can keep overspending and have the Fed print away or he has been completely cronyized to push this absolute BS. He is not even talking about necessities - you know, food, water, shelter. He wants to run deficits, print Fed notes and or increase taxes for the arts. Something that most people care very little about.

    Is this part of the hyper insanity the tyrants and morons had been calling “the new (ab)normal” or would Cowen have endorsed this without the LD craziness?

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