by Paul Jacob

Most people skip the business section of the papers. They either start with the front page, or go straight to the funnies, and end with the Classifieds.

And yet there's one industry that most Americans know quite a bit about: Hollywood. We hear about box office receipts, the weekend's top movies, and the worries of Hollywood insiders. The Entertainment section covers this, as does the business section -- and we often see it on the front page. Nearly every news broadcast offers something about the business of Hollywood.

Apparently, Hollywood is America's showcase business, just as consuming movies and TV programs is now America's passtime. Bye-bye, baseball.

I don't see much wrong with this. Some moralists decry the situation, but there are so many opportunities for varied tastes and entertainment habits that complaining about Hollywood's alleged dominance seems pointless. As Nick Gillespie informs us on Reason Online, Americans' consumption of books, music, video, Internet and the like grows every year. And, as he writes, "Central to this experience is individuals' ability to control where and when we consume culture."

So when we hear that Hollywood is undergoing a slump, that box-office receipts and DVD sales are down, raise an eyebrow. Yes, some venues show decreasing returns. But with new venues like the Amazon and Netflix, people now buy and rent cultural products like books and movies and even TV shows when and where they want them. This may mean fewer sales at release time, but more sales over the long haul.

However much Hollywood folk complain, America's culture industry apprears to be in a boom. For consumers, anyway.

This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob.

Common Sense is published by Americans for Limited Government. Their website can be visited at www.limitedgov.org