Panem et Circenses

by Don Boudreaux on August 3, 2009

in Frenetic Fiddling

The Los Angeles Times reports that Uncle Sam is on the verge of paying the City of Los Angeles $30 million to subsidize a ten-year run of Cirque du Soleil.

So it’s finally come to pass – America has embarked on the same road down which ancient Rome marched to its ruin: Uncle Sam not only subsidizes bread (by subsidizing wheat production) but now also circuses.

As my friend David Gasten asks in an e-mail, “if the Cirque du Soleil is so popular, then why does it need to be subsidized?  They didn’t need to subsidize Michael Jackson’s funeral.”  True dat!

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