[arjie]

Is that true? Are the great authors mostly those funded by the state? It seems to me that this is either UBI by proxy (a writing stipend for all) or some kind of Bureaucrat As Patron model. Neither of those appeal to me.

In fact, the examples of the NEA (no change in the rate of prize winning US works) and the Soviet Writers Union (famous writers explicitly expelled from the stipend mechanism) indicate to me that the effects are marginal at the levels of spending we can tolerate.

I’m sympathetic to the general argument that many problems can be solved by throwing money at them but this one seems like it needs a lot more to create an effect or adding government money to it does not result in the creation of more cultural works.