Pain et Cirques

Overheard at Marginal Revolution :

. . . Uncle Sam is on the verge of paying the City of Los Angeles $30 million to subsidize a ten-year run of Cirque du Soleil.

So it’s finally come to pass—America has embarked on the same road down which ancient Rome marched to its ruin: Uncle Sam not only subsidizes bread (by subsidizing wheat production) but now also circuses.

The loan would come from the federal Housing and Urban Development Department under a program that requires that at least one job be created or retained for every $35,000 spent. So for $30 million, L.A. can get what the Republic needs most in our depressing economic situation: 857 Québécois clowns.