Mayor offers free Viagra
February 13, 2009 at 11:18 pm in Politics
A new opiate for the people?
Now that I have your attention, let me point out it’s not happening in Los Angeles. It’s Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, in the run up to elections this summer, who is making free Viagra available to poor men over the age of 60 as a way of, according to today’s NY Times, “making life more livable for the people of this sprawling metropolis, which finds itself clogged with traffic, overwhelmed by smog, prowled by criminals and reeling from the global financial crisis.”
Yes, I see how inducing an erection that will last for hours can be a way of “making life more liveable;” and I’ve heard of respecting your elders, but will they respect themselves the next morning?
I’m not sure what voter turnout is in Mexico City, but I know here in LA for the mayoral election, stupidly held on the first Tuesday in March instead of the first Tuesday in November, it will be typically, dismally low. So why not try to lure voters of all ages and incomes to the polls with something other than the vague promise of a tax cut or an “I Voted” sticker?
Of course, the tax cut tack is being defied beyond Los Angeles as our broke-and-broker state sends up trial balloons for tax increases; the marquee items are a one-cent increase in the state sales tax and a 12 cents per gallon increase in the state gasoline tax.
Another tax proposal being considered for California is one in the form of a 50 cent tax on bottles of wine sold in the state– a “sin tax” that has been implemented in other states over howls from both ends of the political spectrum. Maybe what we need are “sin perks.”
With this kind of news, if you’re a guy anyway, there’s a chance you’re either going to seek what little solace is available to you by having economy-related stress reduction sex, or you’re going to be too stressed out to have sex. Either way, perhaps Mayor V. (no stranger himself to elections or another similarly spelled word) and other city politicians could help themselves, as well as their constituents, by offering tangible things in exchange for their votes– little blue pills, say, or day spa coupons– to make life more livable here in Los Angeles, another sprawling metropolis clogged with traffic, overwhelmed by smog, prowled by criminals and reeling from the global financial crisis.
And why stop at Viagra and passes to Burke Williams? We all know LA is brimming with medical marijuana clinics, so maybe they could be brought into the mix too on Election Day.
Given the dire economic outlook, perhaps politicians should look into what they can do for us in our private lives since they’ve screwed up a sizable portion of our public lives.
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