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The NEA spends 1 out of every 5 dollars on its own bureaucracy, rather than art. Is the NEA good enough at 'investing' that they can justify a 20% management fe
by azeotropic 8y ago
The NEA spends 1 out of every 5 dollars on its own bureaucracy, rather than art. Is the NEA good enough at 'investing' that they can justify a 20% management fee? That's laughable.
Nobody seems to appreciate the central contradiction in the argument of this article. People can apparently 'invest' their money in the arts without any guidance from Washington, so why not return the 150M budget of the NEA to the apparently art-loving public and let them allocate it as they see fit?
- cphoover 8y agoPeople can invest their money in science and technology... Why do we need the government to invest in that? See how silly that argument sounds...
- azeotropic 8y agoIt doesn't sound silly at all? The NIH is pretty poor at allocating research funds, and extremely bloated. The grant application process is kafkaesque, to the point where most investigators must hire an FTE just to deal with NIH paperwork. Private foundations (e.g. HHMI, Wellcome Trust) already do a much better job. There's less overhead, less make-work for beauracrats, and overall higher-quality science. I don't have first-hand knowledge of other disciplines, but I doubt that it's much different. Certainly SpaceX, Blue Origin, Orbital ATK have moved from design to implementation faster than NASA with the SLS (where 3 of every 4 dollars are spent on overhead).
- cphoover 8y agoWithout NASA I think it's fair to say none of those companies (e.g. SpaceX, Blue Origin) would exist. I could write an essay on the momentous achievements made by agencies you've listed, and the private sector industries they've generated.
- azeotropic 8y agoOf course SpaceX and Blue Origin, etc. are working off of pre-existing rocket technology -- that's why I'm comparing to the SLS (which was supposed to be assembled out of mostly existing space shuttle parts). I don't think it's obvious that NASA was required to create commercialized space. One could just as easily write an essay on the momentous achievements made by private industry and philanthropic foundations. I dare you to write an essay on the momentous achievements of the NEA and the private sector industries it has generated.
- muktaakash 8y agoAnyone, who can paint or sketch manually - does know it worthy enough. This is the human consciousness agency, which no machine and AI going to replace. Every piece of expression, message, visualising, concept, idea transfer and style is different. And that makes an unique and unequal to any- a genre.