The case for arts subsidy

In The Guardian, Jonathan Holmes lays out as cogent a case for government support of the arts as I've read:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/27/arts-funding-reasons-subsidise-creativity

The U.K. is not the U.S., as certain Americans like to remind us whenever the opportunity arises. The sums the British government spends on the arts dwarf those spent by federal and state arts agencies in this country, even though the U.S. population is nearly five times larger than Britain's. The arts and cultural tourism play a more prominant role in the economies of Britain and other European countries than in ours.

Nevertheless, Holmes' argument is worth reading, and worth borrowing by American arts advocates.