Some people believe that governments should spend money on art, music and theatre, while others think that public money should go only to essential services such as health and education. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Those who oppose arts spending point first to urgency. A patient waiting months for an operation gains nothing from a subsidised opera, so money should follow need rather than taste. In Morocco,

for instance

Linking Words

, rural clinics in the Atlas still lack basic equipment, and a national theatre costing hundreds of millions of dirhams looks hard to defend beside them. A

further

Linking Words

objection is fairness since galleries are visited mainly by the educated middle class, yet they are paid for by the taxes of workers who never enter them.

Nevertheless

Linking Words

, supporters of public culture raise a stronger point about long-term value. The most important thing is that art shapes the citizens who later fill those hospitals and schools. In Rabat,

for example

Linking Words

, a free youth theatre funded by the city since 2019 has drawn teenagers from poorer districts, and teachers report that participants attend lessons more regularly and read far more than before.

Moreover

Linking Words

, culture earns money for the state. The Essaouira Gnaoua festival costs the government a few million dirhams but brings roughly three hundred thousand visitors, and,

consequently

Linking Words

, hotels, taxis and craftsmen earn many times that sum. In my view,

therefore

Linking Words

, the choice between art and essential services is false, since a modest cultural budget feeds both.