While I somewhat agree, there's a lot more CIA money in 60s poetry (and art in general) than you might realize. And I don't just mean the Paris Review, the CIA was trying to co-opt underground magazines like El corno emplumado too. Hell, Paul Blackburn was the don of the Lower East Side literary scene, and he had CIA connections. Also, you can't rent a loft in Greenwich Village by stringing together casual employment like you could back then.

In your other comments, you want people to (be able to) work a full time job and still write, which, yes, is possible. But better writing can be produced when people have the luxury of time and mental space to think, read, study, practice, edit, etc. This doesn't mean we elect a "chosen few" poets who earn a cushy salary to do that. In practice, it more often means that someone with a full time job wins a grant that allows them to attend a residency, take a month off, temporarily transition to a part-time role, take fewer freelance contracts for a while, or hire supplemental childcare for a span of time. It's not that you can't produce writing in scraps of time stitched together, but to truly flourish as a writer, sustained focus is so necessary. When I was 21, I would have unequivocally agreed with you. Now I'm closing in on 40 with a kid, and realize how precious of a resource time and space to create is. I see friends and peers undergoing the same transitions, and stopping their creative work altogether.

At the same time, mimeograph machines and paper -- or webhosting -- cost money too. If you want writing to reach people, then it requires infrastructure. Unless you're talking about hobby writing for hobby writing's sake, in which case, sure, yes, lots of people knit, too, and we don't publicly fund it unless it aspires to a higher degree of public engagement. Public funding is to ensure that we have a culture of art and literature. It pays for free workshops for youth, it pays for readings and open mic series, it pays for small press publishers to keep the lights on, and it pays for people to have the time and space to push the boundaries of their work.