The logical fallacy that Libertarians like most, above all logical fallacies is that slippery slope argument. Observe Steve’s comment:
Taken to the full degree, Jason’s argument–”If they can’t get paying customers interested in what they are doing then they need to hang it up,” is an argument for eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and any other state subsidies for the arts.
Very far from the truth. I’m very much in favor of public funding for the arts and this happens to be a topic that I am very close to.
I do happen think that the funding formula should be more geared to funding projects that have a high level of earned income. I am a Democrat in the true sense and I say let the people vote with their feet and let the state bucks flow to the projects that the public finds worthy.
But this is kind of a moot point, since Delaware contributes such a miserly pittance to the arts I was kind of leaving the topic of public finding off the table. (I think the embarrassing funding gives the Delaware Arts Council the right to do their job in blissful anonymity.)
If you read the original post, you see that I am talking about private funding – and the relative long-term uselessness of funding classical music in general and Opera in particular.