Moderated by Mariel Garza, Los Angeles Daily News

Los Angeles’ dirty little economic secret is its $12-billion-a-year pornography industry, located primarily in the San Fernando Valley. Competition from amateur porn on the Internet, piracy and other pressures are cutting into profits. The question is: Should we care? How much should the industry’s health risks weigh against its economic value? And how important is the issue of morality when we’re talking about jobs, sales receipts, and tax dollars? Zócalo brings together a panel of experts–porn producers and former actors Nina Hartley and Ira Levine, economist Jack Kyser, and Sharon Mitchell of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation–to discuss whether or not L.A.’s porn industry is a boon or a burden.