"So really, we're talking about whether the government should spend money to artificially subsidize and popularize art forms which the public has turned its collective back on."

Yeah, that's about right. Same as museums or libraries or any other socially funded stuff that the 'public' find boring and irrelevant! ;-)

But it's also only ONE small part of the picture. As Johnny Adams well points out on the Folk Activism thread, both what IS happening to promote public awareness of TradArts and what is NEEDED, is more ground floor folk enthusiasts pulling together, pooling their individual efforts and getting their shit together, to make it happen.