Since Viagra became available, Pfizer, the manufacturer, has seen its stock soar. Prescriptions are being written at the rate of 20,000 a day. Well, that must describe half the men in America, at least after a hard day at the office. Pfizer is actually advertising the stuff in women's magazines. Of course, even if insurance companies don't pay, the drug retails for ten dollars a dose.
Men pay three bucks for a good condom, and seven for a bottle of mediocre chardonnay.
They have even been known to pay far more, to prostitutes. The drug already has a street value, and illegal knockoffs in Mexico are doubtless next. Viagra, its makers are quick to concede, is not an aphrodisiac. It does not enhance the emotional part of sex. It only helps purely mechanical failure.