HAVE WE LOST OUR WAY?

Without trying to sound too naïve and foolishly innocent, I am simply amazed at how large the porn industry has grown in the United States over the last 50 years since I was a young adult living just outside of our nation’s capital.  As I recall, it was 9th Street where all the action was located:  the strip joints and penny arcades where young men and women could enjoy their fantasies with pretty much whatever could be imagined as the local police looked the other way.

I also recall hearing about all the prostitutes that were available during the political conventions and parties even when there were no elections taking place. 

In fact, after I relocated to North Carolina, home of the textile and furniture industries, I vividly remember being invited to the annual furniture market in High Point and was simple dazzled by what was made available to the potential buyers in the area of either drugs or sex from both males and/or females.  Later, when I attended the Greater Greensboro Open, a PGA sanctioned golf tournament, I found the same kinds of porn available there.

I also am keenly aware that America is the land of opportunity and that our greatness is based in part upon the power of cultural diversity that is brought into this great nation.  But, what is the price that we must pay for this immigration?

A few years ago, a web-based research company conducted a study on the porn industry in the US.  Their study shows that in 2005 and 2006, the United States pornography industry generated $12.62 and $13.33 billion in revenue respectively. This study encompassed video sales and rentals, internet, cable, pay-per-view, in-room, mobile, phone sex, exotic dance clubs, novelties, and magazines. The study is careful, however, to provide a disclaimer regarding the veracity of the information.

According to Covenant Eyes, internet accountability and filtering site, a 2012 Time article quoted an estimate by the Adult Video Network done several years ago for the U.S. online adult entertainment industry at $2.8 billion. Note that this does not indicate what exactly was included in the study, only noting that it was the “online” adult entertainment industry.

Keeping these studies in mind and the massive amount of free internet pornography available, let’s conservatively estimate the U.S. pornography industry at around $8 billion. Comparatively, this estimation would place the pornography industry at the same size as the $8 billion U.S. bottled water industry. Additionally, pornography would make as much as eBay expects customers to buy and sell in merchandise in 2012. Finally, the pornography industry would equal the amount of digital merchandise iTunes is on pace to sell in 2012.

So, who in America is buying all this porn? 

• Is it those who live below the poverty level or those who are unemployed or have been unemployed for a year or more?
• Is it those in the middle class who have found a way to increase their discretionary income?
• Is it those in the upper middle class who without a doubt make more money than they can spend? 
• Or, is it the upper classes and the wealthy who are so filthy rich that they simply want filthy things?

 

On a positive note, some of this porn money finds its way back into the mainstream economy, so all is not lost.