Public funding for the arts is a luxury

Contributed by Shell Suber

The arts are an essential part of a healthy society. Those who believe this should always support them.

For many years we have even set aside public money to sustain and promote the arts and should be happy and thankful that we have the means to do so. But, funding the arts, as important as they are, is not a critical function of government – society, to be sure – but not government necessarily.

We all long for the salad days of low unemployment, plentiful, high paying jobs, a growing economy, and surpluses in our public coffers. But these are hard economic times and government must focus on critical needs and leave direct funding of the arts to citizens who can afford it. If you are such a person, I urge you to give to the arts.

Governor Haley is honoring her responsibility, we must honor ours.

Is Atlas going on strike?

Contributed by Shell Suber 

The working title of “Atlas Shrugged” was “The Strike.” The plot is based on an intriguing philosophical question in the imagination of novelist Ayn Rand: What if society’s true producers and entrepreneurs were to, by their own choice, just give up on America and leave – go on strike, as it were? What if they became fed-up with the jealousy and greed of an increasingly lazy electorate/government determined to punish over-achievers who, well, achieve too much? What if they got a better offer and just took off? What then?

Some consider “Atlas Shrugged” just another cautionary tale with a far-fetched premise intended to make a dramatic point about trends in society the author finds disturbing, similar to Orwell’s “1984.” But perhaps Rand’s implausible premise is not so implausible after all.