Congress is proposing a 49 percent cut to the National Endowment for the Humanities. If this bothers you because you believe that the government has a responsibility to fund projects that explore our common humanity or do not want to trust the funding of humanities research to corporations and private interests alone, let your voice be heard.
Learn more here.
While this is probably nothing but a tiny microscopic drop in the bucket of government spending, I would ask WHY is it the responsibility of gov'ment to fund such stuff. I certainly find nothing in the Constitution empowering the feds to do it.
I am also amused with the notion that “corporations and private individuals” can't handle this matter. I find government bureaucrats are no more noble, and often less so, in their activities than those in the private sector. In any case, they are far less accountable and have no vested in interest on how the money is spent since it is not theirs in the first place.
I think a quote by Jefferson on “foreign aid” could be modified to fit this situation:
“[W]hy give through agents whom we know not, to persons whom we know not, and in countries from which we get no account, where we can do it at short hand, to objects under our eye, through agents we know, and to supply wants we see?”
Why should we be taxed and our money be given by persons whom we do not know (government bureaucrats) to people we do not know (whomever gets such humanities or other type grants) for projects we do not know and for which there is no accountability to the people (taxpayers) who provided the money in the first place?
The world of humanities and science would not end if we ended such waste in government.
But again, the amount of money here is trivial, but as a philosophical issue I argue that government has no business meddling in such things.
Why should we be taxed and our money be given by persons whom we do not know (government bureaucrats) to people we do not know (whomever gets such humanities or other type grants) for projects we do not know and for which there is no accountability to the people (taxpayers) who provided the money in the first place?
Ed–Let me know where I can contribute to your congressional campaign. 😉
Ed: Thanks for the post. I am generally with you on this, but, to be frank, I do not trust the private sector to step up and fund humanities. It seems much more interested in promoting professional training and STEM.