"Porn Economics"

Warning - this post discusses sex and porn.  All complaints will be ignored.  If you don't like this, then be an adult and exercise your right to choose.

Bitterbabe cites an article about how the ease and accessibility of porn for men has killed their libidos as well as unrealistically increased their physical expectations of women.  This is bad because it destroys relationships and "hey, women want to have sex too you know!"

But at its core this is nothing more than a simple lesson in basic economics.  Namely, "substitute goods." 

Substitute goods are precisely that.  Goods that can be substituted for another.  You may want to have an apple, but if there are no apples, perhaps you'll settle for an orange. You would like to go to Disney World, but the flight is too expensive.  So you drive to Great America instead.  You would like that platinum necklace, but the silver one will suffice. 

The key relationship between substitute goods is that as the price of one goes up, the demand for the substitute good goes up as well.  So even though you may really, really want that steak, if it's too expensive, you will instead order the chicken.  But the reverse can happen as well.  Say the steak is very affordable.  But the chicken only costs $1.  You may prefer steak, but the price of chicken is so compelling, you go with the chicken instead.  Thus a significant drop in the price of a substitute good can force a significant drop in demand for the original good as well.

The issue with internet porn is no different.

Previous to it porn came in some physical form.  It was hard to store/hide.  It came with a price.  You also had to physically go and pick it up.  And there was an element of societal shame about it.  But with the internet the effective price of porn dropped to zero.  It was also made incredibly convenient.  And now with an entire generation brought up with it, society has become inured to the idea of internet porn. 

However, true to the law of substitute goods, a drop in the price of porn has caused a drop in demand for real sex.  And this does not make the little ladies happy.  Why sex was how they controlled men and lorded it over them like a weapon...errr...I mean "women like sex too, ya know!"

So let's do a little experiment and play "Amateur Economist."  Specifically, I want you to think of it in terms of a business-customer relationship.  Take the crassness out of it.  Take the sex out of it.  I want you to treat it as a genuine economic problem. 

You are an economist at a high end consulting firm and a client comes in.  She is the CEO of "GS" (General Sex, a spin off of GE) the sole supplier of sex in the country.  Her sales are down, despite it being a monopoly.  After some market research she sees there is a new substitute good being offered by another firm, Pron Enterprises.  Pron Enterprises does not offer sex, but a substitute good.  So when men are looking for sex here are their two choices:

General Sex- Go to the bars, hit on girls.  Buy a bunch of drinks.  Repeat for several nights over the course of weeks.  Get some numbers, go out on several dates, and after a month of hard work, and about $1,000 in social expenses you get to have sex.

Pron Enterprises - Go home, spend 5 minutes on the internet, done.

The CEO of GS wants to know how to increase her sales! 

"How or how Mr/Ms. Economist do I do this?!"

Bonus Cappy Cap points will be awarded for thoughtfulness and incorporating real world business principles to this problem!