Cool, but i’m not all that keen on cultural festivals being dependent on the whims of millionaires.
edit: to expand:
There is the old phrase “He who pays the piper calls the tune”.
There are a bunch of things across the world that are funded by millionaires and their foundations, The anti-malaria campaign by Bill Gates foundation for example. Which is a good thing.
there are also some things in the USA, which are funded by conservative millionaires, that promise to only give money to “the right sort of people”, which usually ends up being discriminatory.
Also a thing in the right-wing media, which likes to complain about “government funding of arts projects”, and “government social spending”, where they like to highlight the “money being wasted” on things that conservative people disapprove of (usually immigrants, homosexual artists etc.).
Their overall narrative is that governments should not spend on arts, culture, or on helping poor people, and that it should be left to rich people’s charitable donations to alleviate the suffering of the poor. Arguing for lower income taxes so that wealthy people can afford to give more to charity to help “the right sort of people”.
Which translates into less money being spent overall on arts&culture that is accessible to the ordinary citizen – private art galleries instead of free-to-access ones, and less money spent on helping the poorest in society – “the undeserving poor” is one of their favourite concepts.
Individual millionaires and their charitable foundations can often be genuinely good and decent people and organisations.
But as a system, I’d rather not have too much reliance on them.
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Cool, but i’m not all that keen on cultural festivals being dependent on the whims of millionaires.
edit: to expand:
There is the old phrase “He who pays the piper calls the tune”.
There are a bunch of things across the world that are funded by millionaires and their foundations, The anti-malaria campaign by Bill Gates foundation for example. Which is a good thing.
there are also some things in the USA, which are funded by conservative millionaires, that promise to only give money to “the right sort of people”, which usually ends up being discriminatory.
Also a thing in the right-wing media, which likes to complain about “government funding of arts projects”, and “government social spending”, where they like to highlight the “money being wasted” on things that conservative people disapprove of (usually immigrants, homosexual artists etc.).
Their overall narrative is that governments should not spend on arts, culture, or on helping poor people, and that it should be left to rich people’s charitable donations to alleviate the suffering of the poor. Arguing for lower income taxes so that wealthy people can afford to give more to charity to help “the right sort of people”.
Which translates into less money being spent overall on arts&culture that is accessible to the ordinary citizen – private art galleries instead of free-to-access ones, and less money spent on helping the poorest in society – “the undeserving poor” is one of their favourite concepts.
Individual millionaires and their charitable foundations can often be genuinely good and decent people and organisations.
But as a system, I’d rather not have too much reliance on them.