Journalism is the most depressing career lately.

I think taxes should be raised (on the wealthy) and that artists, journalists, performers, etc. should have easy access to government-funded royalties. And I think this would be a good way to fund open source too, so that projects such as OpenSSL don't wither on the vine.

The royalties could be at rates specific to each niche (adjusted so that pop superstars are compensated similarly to journalists). But within these categories, compensation is proportional to your public audience. (Edit: proportional on some sort of exponential scale, so that every legitimate professional can make a decent living)

Note: this is basically Richard Stallman's idea. +1 internet dollar to him.