Next in bailout line: Porn?

Sunday, January 11, 2009

You knew this had to happen. Purveyors of adult entertainment say it's time that they got the same government help as financial firms and the auto industry.

Yep, Hustler's Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild's Joe Francis say it's time for a bailout of the porn industry.Flynt and Francis say the economy has hurt their businesses, too, with sales of XXX DVDs down 22 percent. They want $5 billion in federal funds to help them make it until things pick up.

TMZ has Francis' rationale behind the request. "The government has changed its economic policy and now is just handing out money," he told TMZ. "We have a $13 billion industry that's very in need of correcting, so I'll be happy to take their money."

Congress must "rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America," Flynt said.

However, if the three Congressmen that TMZ questioned are any indication, Flynt and Francis have their work cut out for them.

That doesn't dissuade Francis, who says he will personally go to Washington, D.C., to make the bailout request. I'm presuming that such travel is allowed under the terms of Francis' bail while he awaits trial on tax evasion charges.

The joke's on us: Although I don't doubt that the adult entertainment industry is, like many other sectors, taking a hit in this dire economy, I suspect that Flynt and Francis are simply taking advantage of current events to get some press.

The sad fact is that Capitol Hill asked for such mockery, from not only Flynt and Francis, but all Americans.

From the get-go, the lack of oversight in administering the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has made every bailout handout a very unfunny, and egregiously costly, joke.

And since Congress opened up the bailout door so wide, then who's to stop any legal business form seeking relief?

Porn yes, autos no: That's the position of the folks at the Tax Policy Blog, where Josh Barro says the porn industry bailout isn't as crazy as it might seem.

"This bailout request may seem like a joke, and it will certainly strike many people as humorous, inappropriate, or downright outrageous," writes Barro. "However, we will, for the duration of this blog post, treat it as a serious request in order to explain some of the criteria that policymakers should take into account when considering whether/when to provide financial support to a private industry."

After evaluating that criteria, Barro concludes that the adult entertainment industry has several characteristics that make "providers of pornography a more attractive bailout recipient than, say, the auto industry." You can read Barro's full analysis here.

And you thought economists practiced the dismal science.