I Love PBS. Please Stop Trying to Kill It.

I love PBS.  Please stop trying to kill it. PBS never hurt anybody. I don't know if I can call it essential to the country or an institution that must be protected at all costs, but it's always been there when I needed it, from my days as a tot to when I had to cram in high school, and  in college, to now when I just want some news that helps me think or when I'm just trying to chill out or listen to some music.

I'm going to try to make the case but honestly. I just really really really like PBS. I talk about how The Mouse got to me as a kid. The Mouse ain't got nothing on PBS. The Mouse waxed and waned. but PBS was always there just waiting for me.


Sooo. Let's use PBS.



So the general argument for why the government should stay out of the economy, apart from arguments about government involvement in anything is because government involvement tends to screw up supply and demand curves, market equilibrium, and price signals. It's harder to tell whether or not people want a good, how much of it, and what it should cost, both to produce and purchase. It makes for inefficient markets.


In short companies need information to determine if a business venture is potentially profitable and government involvement obscures that information.

BUT

There are some goods, services and regulations that we've all just kind of agreed are useful but at the same time are unprofitable. There is just some stuff companies should do but won't because there is no money in it.



GRUMBLE GRUMBLE GRUMBLE

So the question is do I feel PBS is important enough to demand everybody kick in for it?

Well to answer that let's broaden the question.  Are the country's cultural and educational institutions in general important to demand everybody kick in. The National Endowment for the Arts, Corporatation For Public Broadcasting, Department of Education, as well as various grants ensure that everyday Americans have access to information, culture and education and that is something I think is a common good.

We all benefit when the American populous is educated and well informed. But the benefits of that education and sponsorship of the arts and culture are not always in terms of dollars and cents.

Folks, unless we start to value media, journalism, and the arts we are heading towards a crash where the people who make the things we love can not afford to do so anymore or have to make something so broad that it can not speak with any sort of real voice. I am wary of government involvement in those things but there needs to be a place for high-minded art and television programming to exist. The market will always push for broadness and I have a lack of faith in the American people's intellectual curiosity right now.



I'm worried about propaganda but still, we need to do everything we can to make America smarter.