Bailing out porn

Using their industry to make a sharp, political comment ... or a big joke, Hustlers' Larry Flynt and "Girls Gone Wild" CEO Joe Francis requested a bailout for the porn industry yesterday, saying that they too have been hit by the economic downturn.



Although some people may see this as poking fun at a tragic situation in Detroit, I think it is more about highlighting the absurdity that has been the federal bailout process - how we were happy to give 350$ billion in unregulated money to the financial industry which really triggered the crisis but balked at giving 25$ billion to american car companies. I am not a fan of the car industry, I think it should be made more efficient and refocused onto greener cars and mass transit (like subway cars and buses) before we give them a ton of our money. But I also think there is something sinister about how easy it was for the massive financial houses to get "strings-free" money and while we really put the screws to an industry that peripherally employs millions. I know the arguments and I understand that bailing out wall street was essential to avoid a full economic collapse, but I feel like asking for the same types of changes in the financial sector, like regulation requiring bank loans and cuts in executive compensation and the creation of working oversight boards would not have been too much to ask ... and I would like to think that Larry Flynt and Joe Francis might feel the same way.