261–270 of 511 posts
> Despite a user base of over 130 million, OnlyFans has failed to attract venture capital I don't get why that's a problem? They already built their platform, it works, they're the gold standard and they have a massive paying userbase! Why do they need VC money? Why would you want to dilute your stock rather than just build with your already existing, sizeable revenue stream?
I posit this as an explanation. I think "go big or go home" is a terrible mindset.
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The “particular demographics” who want to ban prostitution include “the majority of women.” https://www.vox.com/2016/3/11/11203740/prostitution-legal-me... Women oppose legalized sex work at higher rates than men, because they’d be the ones who would encounter social pressure to do sex work in tough economic circumstances if it became normalized.
> Women oppose legalized sex work at higher rates than men, because they’d be the ones who would encounter social pressure to do sex work in tough economic circumstances if it became normalized. I don't think that's the only reason; even a few sex providers can distort the (mostly balanced) market for sex. IOW, if men don't feel the need to date just to get sex then there's fewer men in the market. This means that wo…
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Cake-eating-and-having exercise. To progressives: "See how progressive we are, not criminalizing sex work!" To conservatives: "See how conservative we are, endangering sex workers and making life hard for them!"
I don't think conservatives are attempting to endanger sex workers - they believe sex work is fundamentally risky and leads to abuse. There is no safe way to do sex work that doesn't result in problems. Therefore they believe it should be discouraged and made illegal, the same way many progressives believe firearms should be illegal since they are dangerous. Tribal groups are alive and well, and even if you dislike y…
Kind of related to the financial aspects of this article: why is the housing market treated as the basis/most important part of the US economy and not, specifically, energy or finance? The article talks about financial institutions' ability to hinder or even halt growth altogether, and we saw similar actions being taken in Canada last year with the truckers. With regards to energy, I've heard that the cheaper energy…
Energy and finance are important, but don't directly involve individuals as much, and people are VERY emotionally tied into their home and it's value.
If all houses suddenly lost 50% overnight, and mortgages were slashed simultaneously to compensate, it wouldn't be that big of a deal but everyone would freak the hell out. It's much easier to inflate the currency than it is to allow home prices to drop.
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Hah, except that you get more of what you subsidize. Besides being immoral, it’s destructive to society.
I don't understand this. Why is it destructive to society to provide an easy way for people to get laid if they need to?
- Lowering birthrate; people may be less likely to have a family and kids if the primary driver for these things (sex) is already taken care of. - Higher STI rate (regulation might help here). - More isolation; people are less likely to go out and mingle if one of the reasons to do so is easy and transactional. - Wealth inequality; I believe men are more likely to pay for sex, and women sex workers tend to make more. So, money will move from one gender to the other unidirectionally. This may result in wealth inequality if sex work becomes wide spread.
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Hah, except that you get more of what you subsidize. Besides being immoral, it’s destructive to society.
I don't understand this. Why is it destructive to society to provide an easy way for people to get laid if they need to?
Imagine you met someone who says "yeah, I used to really struggle on Tinder, so now I've uninstalled the apps and just hire a prostitute every Saturday". Does he seem like a healthy guy whose needs are being met?
Among Swedish feminists and the left, sex work is completely unacceptable and prostitution is pretty much equated with rape. Is this not true for other countries?
In the far left in the States it's considered work, and something that should be well regulated and safe. The center left/centrist (Democrats) position is more split. Some folks think it's a bodily autonomy issue and others think it's degrading. Feminist opinion is likewise split. But most feminists I know tend to fall in the, "if it's consensual, it should be protected and regulated work. You shouldn't fear going to…
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It's important to point out that this is a natural consequence of a market system, and it's exacerbated by allowing capital to rule those markets. Until we recognize that, we're not going to be able to fix it. One can't just declare that "If only the market were truly free, it wouldn't be like this." We've seen this play out on the freest market that has ever existed (the early internet) and we ended up in the exact…
It's late stage capitalism. It's how all 'free markets' end up eventually. The biggest players gobbling up all of the competition and essentially having a monopoly. All you have to do is drive through middle america to see the Ruby Tuesday/Strip Mall-ification effect on most of the United States. I love capitalism when it's functioning it's the greatest system ever invented. When it's just a market full of monopolies…
Specifically the government creates a bottomless supply of money to loan out, but only to highly-legible highly-centralized entities. As such, big business has an endless source of cheap capital to draw from to invest, whether it's devouring other businesses or building out thousands of cookie cutter stores. Small businesses can only access the money trough by going through a consumer bank with its higher fees and scrutiny of business plans. Individuals can only access the money trough by taking out collateralized loans on legible assets. For the individual market we can readily observe the resulting destructive individual-disempowering dynamic for the markets that have been financialized - chiefly housing and education.
A significant raising of interest rates would reign in this effect. Unfortunately it would take a long and protracted timeline for actual reform, as our economy has come to rely on the bottomless source of easy capital. But it's still worth keeping in mind the warped foundation our specific economy is built on, rather than characterizing the current moribund state as an inevitable end result of every market economy.