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.
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