It goes without saying that rich people should pay a lot more in taxes to support a society that is decent and fair. They benefit from that more than anyone. But I also have been grateful to the wealthy for supporting some aspects of the arts that would die if they were dependent only on popular support — classical music, opera, ballet, fine art etc. I know that stuff is not as important as helping starving kids or saving the planet but it’s part of our shared civilization and worth preserving.
So where in the hell were all the wealthy, lovers of high culture when the pandemic hit? Do they only support these arts when there is a red carpet for them to show off their expensive gowns? Apparently:
As the months without a paycheck wore on, Joel Noyes, a 41-year-old cellist with the Metropolitan Opera, realized that in order to keep making his mortgage payments he would have to sell one of his most valuable possessions: his 19th-century Russian bow. He reluctantly switched back to the inferior one he had used as a child.
“It’s kind of like if you were a racecar driver and you drove Ferraris on the Formula One circuit,” Mr. Noyes said, “and suddenly you had to get on the track in a Toyota Camry.”
The Metropolitan Opera House has been dark for a year, and its musicians have gone unpaid for almost as long. The players in one of the finest orchestras in the world suddenly found themselves relying on unemployment benefits, scrambling for virtual teaching gigs, selling the tools of their trade and looking for cheaper housing. About 40 percent left the New York area. More than a tenth retired.
After the musicians had been furloughed for months, the Met offered them reduced pay in the short term if they agreed to long-term cuts that the company, which estimates that it has lost $150 million in earned revenues, says it will need to survive. When the musicians resisted, the Met offered to begin temporarily paying them up to $1,534 a week — less than half their old pay, but something — if they simply returned to the bargaining table, a proposal the musicians are weighing.
That money is a drop in the bucket for these wealthy patrons who have made massive profits on their portfolios during the pandemic. But I guess they couldn’t be bothered. It’s not about supporting the arts, it’s about providing them their opportunities to show off and be entertained. The pandemic didn’t provide any of that for them so too bad.