{"id":2780,"date":"2022-05-23T08:25:17","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T15:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=2780"},"modified":"2022-05-23T08:25:20","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T15:25:20","slug":"book-diary-may-23-what-is-equity-in-the-arts-a-first-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2022\/05\/book-diary-may-23-what-is-equity-in-the-arts-a-first-look\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Diary – May 23 – What is Equity in the Arts? A First Look…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are two ways to approach equity, which I’m going to define as a fair or just set of entitlements or outcomes among people, not necessarily equal<\/em>, but fair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way is to focus on people’s disposable income: what are people able to buy for themselves? How<\/em> they spend their money is not the primary concern. If you and I have equal disposable income, and face the same prices when we shop, what does it matter if you spend more on rent and less on going out than I do, if we each have the same options? There are some economists, typically libertarian-ish, who think we should keep our focus on income distribution, using progressive taxation and transfers to make it somewhat more equal than what the market generates, and then leave it up to people themselves to decide what to consume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, there is another way to approach equity, more prevalent I would say, that holds that what specific<\/em> things we consume matters. In the US we transfer resources to low-income people through food stamps, which not only must be used on food but must be used on particular types<\/em> of food (a policy I find appallingly patronizing), and we subsidize rents. There is consensus that as health care is (literally) vital, and can be catastrophically expensive in a free market, there ought to be policies that ensure the poor will receive care they need. Public education is justified on the grounds that this particular<\/em> good ought to be available to all. We have other policies where we insist<\/em> on equality. In an election each citizen gets one and only one vote, which cannot be bought or sold. One cannot buy their way out of national service – in her terrific book on the origins of his Theory of Justice<\/em>, Kat Forrester<\/a> recounts how political philosopher John Rawls went against the vast majority of his Harvard colleagues in opposing educational deferments from the draft during the Vietnam War, seeing an unjust inequality. In times of crisis, a war or a natural disaster, there are calls for rationing of essential goods, not leaving their allocation to be determined by market prices alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Tobin wrote a nice short (low tech) essay on this in 1970, “On Limiting the Domain of Inequality<\/a>” where he goes through a number of examples of the sort above. The limits in question are around what goods are ones where we believe equity requires specific intervention in those goods, and what are goods that we can simply leave to the market, assuming we have done right in working towards a reasonably just distribution of purchasing power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The social conscience is more offended by severe inequality in nutrition and basic shelter, or in access to medical care and legal assistance, than by inequality in automobiles, books, clothes, furniture, boats.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He suggests leaving “non-essential luxuries and amenities” to the market. But that leaves the question: what are we going to call non-essential? If we think “the arts” ought to be a good where the market distribution is not acceptable, what specifically<\/em> do we mean by “the arts”, especially in a world where people will have widely divergent tastes and interests? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve some reading to do…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Suggestions to add to the pile are very<\/em> welcome…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are two ways to approach equity, which I’m going to define as a fair or just set of entitlements or outcomes among people, not necessarily equal, but fair. One way is to focus on people’s disposable income: what are people able to buy for themselves? How they spend their money is not the primary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-issues","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/food-stamp.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-IQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3667,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2024\/12\/on-indirect-support-for-the-arts\/","url_meta":{"origin":2780,"position":0},"title":"On “indirect” support for the arts","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"December 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Thomas Wolf has\u00a0posted a short piece\u00a0on the history of the National Endowment for the Arts, whether it is likely to survive the coming second Trump administration, and the tax deduction for charitable contributions. I\u2019m going to focus on that last bit\u2026 People who itemize their income tax deductions can claim\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-3.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":762,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/05\/how-student-discounts-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":2780,"position":1},"title":"How student discounts work","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"May 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Student discounts are offered many places - in restaurants, theaters, tuxedo rentals - and in both the commercial and nonprofit sectors. Nonprofits might want to discount student prices on equity grounds, giving them a break because they have less disposable income. But commercial firms offer these discounts too. It might\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"show your i.d.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Tuxman-Discount-Card1-300x166.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1289,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/05\/does-theatre-make-you-happy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2780,"position":2},"title":"Does theatre make you happy?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"May 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Stage reports: \"Study finds attending plays feels as good as a pay rise\". The study was carried out at the LSE, funded by the UK Department for Culture Media & Sport. The research paper itself is an excellent piece, well-placed in the current scholarly literature on determinants of (self-reported)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"I feel like a million dollars!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/laugh460.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2664,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2021\/05\/do-we-know-how-changing-prices-affects-the-income-diversity-of-audiences\/","url_meta":{"origin":2780,"position":3},"title":"Do we know how changing prices affects the income-diversity of audiences?","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"May 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"In the very first few weeks of Econ 101 students are introduced to the \"demand curve\", relating how changes to the price of a product affect the quantity demanded of the product, all other things held equal. 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The abstract of the paper (free download here) is: Using unique historical sales data from the Leo Castelli Gallery, we introduce a novel model of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Hockney's are up three basis points","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/traders.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/traders.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/traders.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/traders.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/traders.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/traders.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1156,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/03\/gays-the-creative-class-and-the-ecological-fallacy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2780,"position":5},"title":"Gays, the ‘Creative Class’, and the Ecological Fallacy","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Gay men tend to live in expensive cities with nice amenities, both cultural and climactic. Does that mean they are rich? At the Atlantic, Nathan McDermott reports: Who are America\u2019s gays? To hear it as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia would have it, gays are a privileged set, living it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"nice amenities you have here","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/San-Francisco-43.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2780"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2786,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2780\/revisions\/2786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}