Subsidising inefficient businesses does not encourage them to become more competitive and means that extra money has to be taken from tax payers for the same result. Inevitably, this reduces the total size of the economy and lowers living standards.
One meaningful distinction between high and popular culture, is that there’s way more good popular culture – because its standards of quality are more forgiving, because sobriety isn’t its default mode, because there’s so damn much of it.
When I play live in restaurants and cafes, I don’t play my own stuff. I play jazz and ‘American Songbook’ standards, and I’ll fuse it with top 40.
The Constitution sets out no standards for granting pardons. They require no consent from Congress, and courts can’t second-guess them.
Most of my comedies were low on budgets – certainly by American standards.
I would love to do an album of standards!
