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Rick Steves’ Guide to Government Cheese

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Thu, 2009-09-03 14:15 — The Conductor
Topic: 
Culture
Economics
Places: 
U.S.A.
Organizations: 
Government

Thinking up this introduction, I was amazed to find that PBS is not on the list of Stuff White People Like. Public Radio, however, is #44.

Now, on to the point. Art Carden starts from common ground and has a suggestion to shave a wisp off the Federal budget:

For all of our disagreements, I would like to think that pretty much everyone would agree that redistributing resources from poor people to rich people is a bad idea. With this in mind, I suggest that we stop subsidizing most food- and travel-related public television shows. While it could be argued that this provides "vicarious travel" for the poor, I'm guessing that the median income of people who are helped by tips on which out-of-the-way Italian villages have the best prosciutto and which high-end restaurants in Mexico City offer the best Mexican/Asian fusion is higher than the median income of people who are paying for those tips.

Public TV is justified as a benefit for all. Their fund drives are cloaked in an aura of social charity. But if the goal really was to help those with less live better, we would see a lot more Clara and a lot less Julia.