Comments on: An Economist Confused About Porn

By: Bacchus

Bacchus — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 23:57:05 +0000

If you make up your definitions, anything can be anything else that you define it to be. “Addiction” is a catchy word that we use to justify various regulatory, medical, or psychological interventions; since it tends to be used in a way that minimizes free will and personal responsibility, I tend to be skeptical of overbroad definitions.

If someone wants to spend four hours a day looking at porn, who the hell are you to say that’s a problem? I’m getting the whiff of a do-gooder busybody here. ;-)

By: e-head

e-head — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 18:06:23 +0000

Pornography can certainly be an addiction for some people. Addiction is roughly defined as “uncontrolled, compulsive use”, that generally leads to bad consequences. Under this definition, I’ve no doubt some people out there are addicted to pornography, as well as food, sex, drugs, alcohol, shopping, gambling, etc… Virtually any activity that people find pleasurable can lead to addiction in certain people.

I have a friend that lost his job because he was looking at pornography at work, and I’ve known others that lost their girlfriends/wifes.

Note, I’m not saying there is anything wrong with pornography, or that I think it should be outlawed simply because some people take it too far, but it certainly can be addictive. I’d say if anyone is looking at it more than 4 hours a day then perhaps they may have an addiction issue. After all, considering what you get out of it, I’m not sure 4 hours a day is worth it, and it almost certainly is having negative consequences. I’d say the same thing for TV or video games.

By: Bacchus

Bacchus — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 15:57:42 +0000

Lola, your economic reasoning with respect to the effect of changing incomes on “new” porn consumption seems sound to me. However, I should share with you that in the online porn industry, the “received wisdom” is that in economic hard times, porn sales actually go up. I can’t tell you if it’s true or not — real statistics don’t exist, not in public anyway — but the “story” to explain it involves a lot of unemployed folks sitting home alone and in a bad mood between job interviews, turning to some quality new porn to cheer themselves up or alleviate boredom.

By: Lola

Lola — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 06:20:49 +0000

“why people are willing to pay money for new and fresh (and scarce) porn”

This is hilarious, and yet, so totally cool. I’m taking an Econ course right now and will be forwarding your post to my professor.

According to what I’ve learned, you also have to take into account the fact that consumers’ incomes change. When incomes grow, people tend more for what’s called “normal” goods, when the income is reduced folks go for “inferior” goods. IE, I make more money, I buy the better, faster, kinkier, newer porn. I lose my job and I’m back on the re-runs and old shows I’ve saved from days of yore. [Another ie, get a raise - buy new clothes, lose income go back to shopping at a second hand store.]

Right now, unemployment in the US is pretty low, I believe, so I bet demand and quantity demanded for porn is up. But I bet if you checked the membership purchases on porn websites or even the proliferation of porn websites or videos post-Dot Com Bust, you’d see that the numbers dropped.

And this is in addition to the fact that we have changing, evolving tastes. Like you said, B, why subside on canned peas and blocks of cheddar cheese when we can afford organic, fresh, varied veggies and gourmet fromage?

Clearly, this Professor is just fishing for someone to share their account password to Sex & Submission with him.

By: Tickled Pink

Tickled Pink — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 13:44:59 +0000

Dragon Says:

“Fascinating insight into the industry trends! It gets me wondering” …. “where – if anywhere – the porno-net of the 1990s that I grew up on is stockpiled.”

Check out the “Internet Archive” at http://www.archive.org/web/web.php
It’s far from complete ‘cos many sites had “robots-nofollow” or “noarchive” tags, but it’s amusing when it works. Sadly, something appears to have buggered the index and a bunch of the old links aren’t found any longer, but it’s still amazing at times!

By: Bacchus

Bacchus — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:37:45 +0000

Eccentrica, I won’t use them interchangeably if you won’t accuse me of doing so when I haven’t!

I’m a guy, I know how guys watch porn. I have very little idea how women do. So I couldn’t have said “people” in that sentence. I could in the sentence before, because I know that tastes change for both men and women.

Thanks for the data point on women and porn, I do appreciate it.

By: Eccentrica

Eccentrica — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:34:26 +0000

I’m a 26-year-old woman and I watch porn in the way you describe here: ‘to use the images on the screen to stimulate the somewhat different movies in their own heads’. I agree with most of what you say, but I wish you didn’t use ‘people’ and ‘guys’ interchangeably! Not all porn-watchers are male (even if the vast majority are). Other than that, excellent post.