In 2022, Ireland did something extraordinary. The government randomly selected 2,000 artists out of more than 8,200 eligible applicants and gave them €325 a week, unconditionally, for three years. No strings. No testing beyond being an artist. Just money, every week, so they could make art. Another 1,000 artists served as a control group.

The final results came in last year, and the Irish government read them and made the program permanent.

Mindblowing, because I didn't know*. I wonder what familiar names came out of that.
The word "eligible" probably does some very heavy lifting here (in other words, it's not completely random), but still.

It's the sort of long term thinking the political world seems to be losing.

* there's all sorts of artist grants in many countries; it's the length and the unconditional that makes this one special.

“30 seconds in: ‘this is fucking stupid’ 18 minutes in: ‘this is the greatest musical performance of the century”