The arts in Renaissance Italy were funded by patronage, not taxes.
... Not that I ever claimed spending money on arts removes all possibility of war, mind you.
Poetry, art, music, drama, etc, improve critical thinking, empathy, self-determination, awareness of history, political engagement, etc; all of which are reasons that one of the first things fascists will do is suppress any arts not related to propaganda.
It's really weird to see someone try and argue that funding the arts has no effect on a populations mindless bloodthirst, in order to defend not paying a microsopic fraction of their income toward poetry.
As I said, the most generous amount the US could be considered to spend on poetry via fed and state taxes is about ten mil. That's 10 cents per person, per year. That's what you're arguing over here. It's profoundly odd.
Not convinced about that. Athens and Renaissance Italy were both hugely centres for the arts, but also fought plenty of wars.