Panhandlers in the Marketplace of Ideas
- At April 23, 2004
- By Bob Howe
- In Blog Posts
5
In his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, Al Franken brilliantly decouples inherent worth from commercial success. In Chapter 2, “You Know Who I Don’t Like? Ann Coulter,” he writes:
…like any movement conservative, Coulter is a firm believer in the free market. By definition, anything that succeeds in the “marketplace of ideas,” like her books, must inherently be of value. And, therefore, unlike members of working families, she really does work for a living.
Here’s something to think about, though. A friend of mine works in the hotel industry. About 65 percent of the movies that are ordered in hotels are “adult movies.” Clearly, two blondes going down on each other is a real winner in the marketplace of ideas. My all-time favorite stat: The average length of time those movies are on is…twelve minutes. That is my favorite statistic in life.
My question is, what are all those people doing with the second six minutes?
