In this article, Bastiat once again claims that government should make sure that the market show its magic without intervention. The important part is that government should show its efficiency and usefulness in spending taxes.
Theaters and fine arts are actually people's mental desire for satisfaction, its marginal benefit is greater than basic necessities'.
I agree that the government shouldn't control the market at most of the time, but since in the free market, people trade and do business based on their self interest rather than mercy, they may abandon valuable while unprofitable things, which are common especially in the field of art. And according to one of the ten basic principles of economics, free market alone sometimes will also make mistake in allocating resources. What I doubt is the claim that all the vital forces of society should develop harmoniously under the influence of liberty.
An counterexample is that one of the most traditional art in China,Kunqu opera, once faced extinction during and immediately after the war against Japan. No artists would perform and teach the opera at the risk of starvation and slaughter and business men couldn't sponsor. At last, the Kunqu opera was subsidized by Chinese government after 1949. Artists and business men themselves sometimes cannot develop the art due to riots, the support of government can help a lot.
My question, if a traditional form of art is about to face extinction, should the government intervene or at least call for people to pay attention to it?
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