• Home
  • About
    • For What it’s Worth
    • Michael Rushton
    • Contact
  • AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal

For What It's Worth

Michael Rushton on pricing the arts

Economic impact / Job creation arguments for public policy are terrible, episode 647.

October 26, 2023 by Michael Rushton Leave a Comment

Reasonable people can disagree on the amount of military support the US ought to give to Ukraine. But no reasonable person can think that the costs of this are actually benefits in terms of spending and US job creation.

The benefit to the public of the arts is the arts, not the money that we spend on the arts. The benefit to the public of aid to Ukraine is the aid to Ukraine, not the money that was spent on providing that aid.

Share:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print

Related

Filed Under: issues

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Michael Rushton

Michael Rushton taught in the Arts Administration programs at Indiana University, and lives in Bloomington. An economist by training, he has published widely on such topics as public funding of the … MORE

About For What It’s Worth

What’s the price? Everything has one; admission, subscriptions, memberships, special exhibitions, box seats, refreshments, souvenirs, and on and on – a full menu. What the price is matters. Generally, nonprofit arts organizations in the US receive about half of their revenue as “earned income,” and … [Read More...]

Archives

Recent Comments

  • Carlo on What to do with the NEA? Make it Conservative?: “The Kennedy Center is offering $25 tickets in only select orchestra seating for the performances of Washington National Opera: Porgy…” May 20, 14:17
  • Carlo on Art in Turbulent Times: “The Kennedy Center today is selling discounted tickets for the Washington Opera for $20.” May 1, 21:31
  • Montague Gammon III on Art in Turbulent Times: “We would like to think that a Trumped Kennedy Center would experience a significant downturn in attendance, but we should…” Apr 22, 05:51
  • Ed Comet on What do to with the NEA? Pull the plug?: “The author has gone to the Grand Canyon with a magnifying glass, and found the rocks uninteresting.. The NEA does…” Apr 12, 16:42
  • Brtian Newhouse on What do to with the NEA? Pull the plug?: “I think that for arts patronage to work, there has to be some consensus that the activities of making and…” Apr 12, 14:28
Return to top of page

an ArtsJournal blog

This blog published under a Creative Commons license

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in