It's a wealth transfer to the middle class. Poor people by and large don't go to the orchestra or opera. Of course, some poor people do enjoy these kinds of t

It's a wealth transfer to the middle class. Poor people by and large don't go to the orchestra or opera. Of course, some poor people do enjoy these kinds of things! But if you gave them a choice between the subsidised ticket or the embedded subsidy as cash in hand, I'm sure most poor people would take the cash. > You could pump a large part of those resources into supporting other kinds of music and arguably the outcome would be more interesting. Or give the money to poor people, or leave the money with tax payers, etc.