The problem with film credits is few legislatures have the appetite long-term to make them work. Those that do get a film production industry: New Mexico, Georgia. List industries that the US doesn't subsidize and I'll show you a list of industries that make it up in payola and kick-backs. Honestly? I see it like the Airbus/Boeing debacle: Airbus exists because it is subsidized by the governments of France, Germany and England. Boeing exists because Boeing receives illegal payouts and favoritism in order to stay afloat against a rival that doesn't have to profit. Considering movies are rarely used to kill someone but always used to spread your economic and social ideals, FUCK YEAH we ought to be subsidizing the production of entertainment. If I could make the DHS and the NEA swap budgets I'd do it in a heartbeat. What do you think Hitler looks like without Leni Riefenstahl? How long do the '80s last without Red Dawn and Top Gun? It's all propaganda; the only real question is how directly you fund it.
For sure. Here in MI, we have a giant budget deficit, because the Big 3 were promised tax credits for keeping jobs here during the recession that we can't afford. If not for the incentives, what manufacturing remains would already be overseas. I suppose my problem isn't with subsidizing industry, because of course that happens everywhere, but rather with the race to the bottom that all the states play against one another. Remember the "Texas Miracle" that was basically Rick Perry telling industry that they could treat his state like it were a quarter million square miles of a garbage dump? I loathe that kind of mentality. MI didn't create any jobs when it gave up its money; it stole them from CA. That looks more like looting than economic development to me, and I think it makes us all poorer.List industries that the US doesn't subsidize and I'll show you a list of industries that make it up in payola and kick-backs.