Panem et Circenses

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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 ^[2].

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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