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How a call girl can earn far more by actually working far less

entertainment.timesonline.co.uk

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Re: How a call girl can earn far more by actually working far less

#21

Post by lionhearted »

Confusion wrote: post #19
lionhearted wrote: post #14

Problems with the article: > Throughout history, it has invariably been easier to be male than female. Yes, this is an overgeneralisation and yes, there are exceptions, but by any important measure, women have had it rougher than men. This one is a PC-friendly thing to say, the opposite point of view is not. If you haven't read it, I must urge you to check out the excellent "Is There Anything Good About Men?" essay b…

the majority of men died without descendents. Things like that. Well, to me that's a reason not to read the essay, because it sounds quite like a naturalistic fallacy to care whether someone had offspring.

> Well, to me that's a reason not to read the essay, because it sounds quite like a naturalistic fallacy to care whether someone had offspring.

I think you'll find it a thought-provoking essay regardless of your personal ethics. It's well-written, has lots of numbers, and brings up a lot of counterintuitive/counter-cultural points. I found it through Hacker News originally, actually.

Re: How a call girl can earn far more by actually working far less

#22

Post by dannyr »

This reminded of an App Store developer I met a few months ago who had an app selling for $10. He was working too much answering too many technical support questions.

What he did was increase the price of the app to $25. Less people purchased his app but his revenue is about the same. The volume of technical support questions dropped significantly because he has less users.

Re: How a call girl can earn far more by actually working far less

#23

Post by jacquesm »

tome wrote: post #20
jacquesm wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it'd be a shame if a woman was peer-pressured to do a job she hates because "just getting married and being a housewife" is stigmatized these days. The pressure does not come from being stigmatized but from the fact that a single person income is not enough to feed a family of four in plenty of places. And if you don't have children and your spouse is out working you might as well go to work yourself, rather than t…

The pressure does not come from being stigmatized but from the fact that a single person income is not enough to feed a family of four in plenty of places. Is this true? Surely the cost of living has decreased over the last 100 years, so it must be easier for a single breadwinner to feed a family than it was back then.

Not where I live and this is a pretty rich country. Between your rent/mortgage, your energy bill, public transportation costs, taxes, mandatory health insurance and food a single person income is not enough to make ends meet. And that's when you don't own a car. Typically a single person income is about 1700 euros net take home, and your costs will be slightly above that (for the above mentioned family of four).

The breakdown: mortgage 500 (no paying towards the principal, so you're stuck with the debt) food 350 (yes, it's that expensive), health insurance 280 to about 320 depending on the coverage, energy 100 to 250 (depending on season and insulation), commute 150 or more, clothing, various taxes (on top of your income tax) and 'unforeseen' will easily eat up the remainder.

If you live in 'subsidized housing' it gets a bit better.

Re: How a call girl can earn far more by actually working far less

#24

Post by chmike »

olalonde wrote: post #10
lotusleaf1987 wrote: post #4

The best part is at the end when the monkey pays another monkey for sex.

I saw it coming at "pretty much focused on food and sex".

Bonobo monkeys have been seen trading food (fruits) for sex. What is new for me here is that they adopted a currency.

Re: How a call girl can earn far more by actually working far less

#25

Post by nandemo »

aresant wrote: post #11
zaidf wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is a soul crushing business for 99/100 prostitutes How is that conclusion much better than the one you're attacking?

Fair enough. Me vs. Professor of Economics Steven Levitt: Levitt: 1 hand-picked prostitue that was a guest lecturer in his college class. Me: - PROSTITUTION IS THE MOST DANGEROUS JOB IN AMERICA. The murder rate is 1 in 490. Compare that to the fishing industry, where the death rate is 1 in 775. - Eighty-two percent of prostitutes reported having been physically assaulted since entering prostitution. - Women trafficke…

What are you really trying to say? Levitt is talking about one case which is not representative, and he is definitely not claiming that it is representative. Citing statistics cannot refute the existence of a non-representative data point.

On the price elasticity: if you're a freelance programmer and you raise your hourly rate from $100 to $400, you might not make more money. So if someone can successfully pull it out, it is noteworthy.

Re: How a call girl can earn far more by actually working far less

#26

Post by [deleted] »

lionhearted wrote: post #21
Confusion wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the majority of men died without descendents. Things like that. Well, to me that's a reason not to read the essay, because it sounds quite like a naturalistic fallacy to care whether someone had offspring.

> Well, to me that's a reason not to read the essay, because it sounds quite like a naturalistic fallacy to care whether someone had offspring. I think you'll find it a thought-provoking essay regardless of your personal ethics. It's well-written, has lots of numbers, and brings up a lot of counterintuitive/counter-cultural points. I found it through Hacker News originally, actually.

[deleted]

Re: How a call girl can earn far more by actually working far less

#27

Post by trustfundbaby »

yardie wrote: post #18
dotcoma wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think high-level and low-level prostitution are two almost completely different businesses.

Yes, one is on-demand by phone, and the other is on-demand at the street corner. In both cases you don't know how they got there (whether by choice or force) and most johns don't care to ask.

Totally different clientele.

Ask this lady http://www.realprincessdiaries.com/

Re: How a call girl can earn far more by actually working far less

#28

Post by stoney »

tome wrote: post #20
jacquesm wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it'd be a shame if a woman was peer-pressured to do a job she hates because "just getting married and being a housewife" is stigmatized these days. The pressure does not come from being stigmatized but from the fact that a single person income is not enough to feed a family of four in plenty of places. And if you don't have children and your spouse is out working you might as well go to work yourself, rather than t…

The pressure does not come from being stigmatized but from the fact that a single person income is not enough to feed a family of four in plenty of places. Is this true? Surely the cost of living has decreased over the last 100 years, so it must be easier for a single breadwinner to feed a family than it was back then.

Increasing the size of the workforce will tend to put downward pressure on wages. So if you double the workforce I expect you'd see pretty serious downward pressure on wages, maybe to the point where previously one partner working could support the family (historically the norm), but now you need both partners working. Though of course adding women to the workforce has had lots of positive effects, so maybe the overall improvement in the economy cancels out the downward pressure on wages. I am not an economist.

Re: How a call girl can earn far more by actually working far less

#29

Post by zaidf »

jacquesm wrote: post #17
lionhearted wrote: post #14

Problems with the article: > Throughout history, it has invariably been easier to be male than female. Yes, this is an overgeneralisation and yes, there are exceptions, but by any important measure, women have had it rougher than men. This one is a PC-friendly thing to say, the opposite point of view is not. If you haven't read it, I must urge you to check out the excellent "Is There Anything Good About Men?" essay b…

> it'd be a shame if a woman was peer-pressured to do a job she hates because "just getting married and being a housewife" is stigmatized these days. The pressure does not come from being stigmatized but from the fact that a single person income is not enough to feed a family of four in plenty of places. And if you don't have children and your spouse is out working you might as well go to work yourself, rather than t…

Funny. An assistant at my Dad's work figured she was paying almost her salary in babysitting costs and other expenses for things she could do herself if she had time. So she quit.

My dad calls it the pay-your-neighbor-so-he-can-pay-his-neighbor phenomenon. Uncle Sam makes the most money in that relationship. He makes nothing when you babysit your own kid; he makes plenty when you hire someone to do the same thing(and someone hires you to do their thing).

Re: How a call girl can earn far more by actually working far less

#30

Post by lukesandberg »

lionhearted wrote: post #14

Problems with the article: > Throughout history, it has invariably been easier to be male than female. Yes, this is an overgeneralisation and yes, there are exceptions, but by any important measure, women have had it rougher than men. This one is a PC-friendly thing to say, the opposite point of view is not. If you haven't read it, I must urge you to check out the excellent "Is There Anything Good About Men?" essay b…

you make an interesting point and clearly not everything about the modern situation for women (or men for that matter) is a clear gain over the past. However taken as a whole you have to ask whether or not the life of an average woman is better due to additional education, legal and voting rights...

I would say it probably is, i don't think increased suicide rates or depression rates are high enough to actually effect the average experience. though that is obviously just an opinion and could do with some data

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