> I would like a society in which all kinds of creators received public
> support rather than rely on markets.
The perennial dilemma in the U.S.:
"When Scherle had an aide call Plimpton for comment, Plimpton, ever the politician, told the aide, “You are from the Midwest. You are culturally deprived, so you would not understand it anyway.” Nonetheless, Hanks managed to defuse the situation and the whole thing fizzled out. Then in 1970 Plimpton almost caused another scandal. It reached Hanks that Plimpton was going to publish, partly with money from an NEA grant, a third volume of the Anthology that included a short story called “The Hairy Table” by Ed Sanders. “The Hairy Table” opens thusly:
'Her delicate tongue of flame slid into the crinkles of my ass, jabbing here like a sparrer, sucking there like a cuttlefish dragged from its hole. I filled her snatch full of air and gently drew it out in cunt-spurts, tasting the salmon moisture of the wheezes.'
Hanks was alarmed. She asked Plimpton to remove the story. He refused. Joseph Zeigler:
'Hanks … went straight to New York to negotiate with Plimpton. Hanks announced that she was canceling the anthology after the third volume appeared, which meant that Plimpton would have to find other funding for the fourth edition already being planned. He decided to excise The Hairy Table from the anthology supported with NEA money, and include it in another edition that was printed with private sector money.'
Through continued support, Hanks effectively had Plimpton on payroll, and she could, and did threaten to fire him, effectively."
<http://idiommag.com/2011/05/hideseek-culture-wars-and-the-history-of-the-nea/>
(The web page is a bit of a book report. Binkeiwicz, who's cited at the bottom, is well worth reading, though...)