Didn’t Goldmans only screw us end 2008?
Goldmans? I’m not sure if you are abbreviating Goldman-Sachs and ignoring the contributions of other guilty parties or … what.
That looks like annual data to me, with a smoothing function applied. It is hard to tell where the real data points are exactly. A massive drop at the end of 2008, enough to bring down the annual average, followed by a slight recovery of travel rates in the next year as the immediate crisis passed would explain the graph and make sense.
Not really. “Free” isn’t as free as you want to think. I live in a country with free Federal University that is considered the best education someone can achieve. Guess what? Only the rich kids have access to education good enough to pay for courses that better their chances to pass the exam that determines who’ll get the (by nature) limited spots. There’s free housing on campuses too but, again, not enough for everyone and the most common thing students do is share apartments between 4 and 8 students each. Free University, free housing AND free food (they serve lunch and dinner at very discounted prices) but you still have a better chance if your parents have some money to help with books and clothing etc and you would be surprised at how many young girls in campus are prostitutes. Really. Usually the well-paid scort kind.
Well, the obvious question here is, which country?
Brazil. I hesitate to mention because all the stereotypes of Brazil that comes to mind and it’s very very hard to separate them from the issue here, when this has absolutely nothing to do with them whatsoever. Sigh. The girls are middle class, blonde white green eyes, the clients are usually engineers, entrepreneurs etc. Think more Japanese girls that go out with older men to afford luxury items and less Copacabana beach street walkers. There’s girls that do this to pay for particular University also.
So, the issue is less having or not access to “free college” and more somewhere between nihilism (lack of perspective or good prospects in life), consumerism (want to have the latest expensive toy), partying leading to drug habits, lack of experience and the natural arrogance and dramatic feelings of being young (nothing will happen to me, I am in charge, I know what I’m doing, now there’s no turning back etc). I believe that although they think they know what they are doing, they are being manipulated. The realization comes afterwards. You usually don’t realize you’re being used while you are being used.
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I would say that because of the inherent issues of money, power, drugs, coercion and violence it can be a very different occupation for some people - to say otherwise doesn’t recognize the reality of the sex industry’s seedier side.
Exactly how are these inherent issues?
Except in the sense that one of these is inherent in any paying work, three of these are inherent in stigmatized work with criminalization and/or police harassment, and one of these is a way of coping with shit jobs, shit working conditions, and a shit society?
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I’m not sure these problems go away completely if we eliminate stigma; at the heart of sex work, people are the product and there are always going to be others who look to be the “middlemen” and exploit that. That’s not to say everyone in the industry is subject to those conditions, but some always will be, even if stigma were to be eliminated.
Well, that applies to all performers, no matter the nature of the performance. If stigma is removed, sex workers will have the same ability to organize, etc. that other performers do.
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I don’t think anything is going to change the fact that the wealthy will have an easier time getting a quality education but the problems you mention seem more of an unbalanced implementation. In any event, free access to higher education reduces the number of people who have little choice but to enter the sex trade. Of course it isn’t a magic pill that’s going to solve all of societies problems, but it does make it better for everyone…
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You know, I think we should balance free education with better pragmatic and focused education. College as it is right now makes for a good portion of overeducated unemployment (and indebted adults). I feel that there’s a failure somewhere in the supply and demand of skilled workers and recognizing the true abilities of young people.
It’s kinda unfair that you have 16 year olds chosing what they’ll do with the rest of their lives when the world around them is changing so fast. When I started college the Internet was something only universities and governments could have. When I finished college there were completely new fields of work, like web design, that simply didn’t exist because the www was created while I was in school. My son dreams of being a jet pilot. I half joke to him that when he finishes his studies all fighter jets will be drone-piloted.
I wish I could meet every one of those girls and have a long talk to them about their hopes and dreams and take that lack of perspective and turn it on its head: look, you have these abilities, you can explore these possibilities, you have choice. Money poor but perspective poor also, above all.
Some, some boys as well to your point. Its the “young” bit that’s relevant.
At least, this is my personal experience.
Maybe we could just stop freaking out over young people expressing their sexuality. THEY by and large don’t freak out about it. In about 20-40 years this sort of thing will be less weird to those who are growing older.
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