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It's worth noting that this op-ed is by Sudhir Venkatesh, who is also mentioned prominently in a chapter of Freakonomics. So, given his background he probably
by knowtheory 16y ago
It's worth noting that this op-ed is by Sudhir Venkatesh, who is also mentioned prominently in a chapter of Freakonomics. So, given his background he probably actually does know what he's talking about!
- jseliger 16y agoYeah -- his book Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor is pretty good: http://www.amazon.com/Off-Books-Underground-Economy-Urban/dp/0674030710?ie=UTF8&tag=thstsst-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957 http://www.amazon.com/Off-Books-Underground-Economy-Urban/dp... . He's a very interesting guy, and I'm not surprised that he's decided to look at prostitution more carefully because it's pretty hard to argue that high-end prostitutes are being exploited or whatever. When I say high-end, think Belle de Jour: http://belledejour-uk.blogspot.com/ http://belledejour-uk.blogspot.com/ , who is compulsively readable and hilarious.
- brc 16y agoThe most interesting part of the Freakonomics chapter is that modern day prostitues suffer from the worst kind of competitor - one that gives away the product for free. The chapter points out that, 100 years ago, something like 20% of men lost their virginity to a prostitute, whereas now it is something like 2%, because most men are likely to find a woman who is willing to have sex with them without any sort of long term commitment.