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Thread: The Disturbing Economics of America's Sex Trade

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    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default The Disturbing Economics of America's Sex Trade

    some interesting 'first time' statistics on the size and 'distribution' of sex-for-money in various American cities ... from



    (snip)Funded by a $500,000 grant from the Justice Department, and researched and written by the Urban Institute, the landmark study released Wednesday looks at the underground commercial sex economy in eight major cities: Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, Miami, San Diego, Seattle and Washington, D.C. It includes interviews with pimps, prostitutes, traffickers, child pornographers and law enforcement officials, all with an eye toward understanding the trade better.

    As of 2007, the underground commercial sex economy was estimated to generate between $39.9 million and $290 million in revenue in each city, with Denver’s being the smallest and Atlanta’s the largest. In the two years examined — 2003 and 2007 — the size of these economies decreased in all but two cities: Seattle and Atlanta. Washington, D.C.'s sex economy suffered the greatest decline





    The researchers seem to have gotten the clearest picture yet of how America's illegal sex trade and trafficking work. "There are no accounting records to trace, no receipts to scrutinize, and no legal records to analyze," says Meredith Bank, the study's lead author. "Simply, it is difficult to grasp the size of this economy."Unsurprisingly, cash is king, accounting for 66.7 percent of all sex-for-pay transactions. Credit cards are used 10 percent of the time, while trading sex for drugs accounts for another 4.2 percent of transactions (snip)


    If interested, the whole study is up for grabs at

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    Veteran Member Doc Holliday's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Disturbing Economics of America's Sex Trade

    How did it take them 7 years to compile this data?? With how the internet has changed everything, it's so old it's practically irrelevant.
    Nope silly, its just a persona that entertains the masses, yourself included. - KS_Stevia

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    Default Re: The Disturbing Economics of America's Sex Trade

    Melonie you always come up with some good facts but to quote Tony Soprano this one seems a little light. Going to Wikipedia the total Atlanta GDP was 272 billion dollars in 2008. This means the illicit markets was barely a tenth of a percent of the total GDP? Seems too small right?

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    Default Re: The Disturbing Economics of America's Sex Trade

    GDP includes a whole lot of components, from total gov't and private sector paychecks, to 'business to business' transactions. Other components include 'necessary' spending on rent, utilities, groceries, insurance etc. So what percent of total GDP is left in the category of 'discretionary spending' ... maybe 10% ? If so that would mean that 1% of all available discretionary dollars are flowing into 'illegal' sex purchases ? I found a stat showing total Atlanta retail spending at 6 billion, which would tend to indicate that the percentage spent on 'illicit' sex is more like 4%+

    Maybe a better way to look at it is to start with the $ 290 million being spent, and to attempt to calculate how many 'ways' that money is being split up. Wiki shows an Atlanta population in the 420,000 ballpark ... with ~210,000 therefore being female. Throwing out senior citizens, under 18, etc. that leaves perhaps 140,000 females in the potential age group ? If 1% of those females, or 1,400, are actually working 'illegal' sex sales, that would translate into a median earnings level of $207,000 per sex worker per year. Tony Soprano would definitely be happy with those numbers. Also, keep in mind that this supposedly includes only 'illicit' spending on sex ... meaning that money spent in strip clubs etc. isn't part of the total.

    Or, viewed from a totally different perspective, with a guesstimated ~33% effective tax rate applying to $200k self-employed incomes, the gov't is missing out on ~$100 million per year in tax revenues from the city of Atlanta's sex workers alone. That's definitely not chicken feed !

    I didn't really have any particular point in mind when posting this study ... other than it presents some 'hmmmm'-worthy numbers for the first time.
    Last edited by Melonie; 03-18-2014 at 11:04 AM.

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    Default Re: The Disturbing Economics of America's Sex Trade

    I'm thinking it's more like a billion dollars and to your point most of it is untaxed!

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    Default Re: The Disturbing Economics of America's Sex Trade

    I clicked on your link Mel & it said "page not found"


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    Default Re: The Disturbing Economics of America's Sex Trade

    ^^^ it appears this story has 'aged' off the news website. But the entire report is still available at

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    Default Re: The Disturbing Economics of America's Sex Trade

    I would imagine that Atlanta's population numbers are based off of the surrounding areas (Decatur, Brookhaven, etc), not just the metro itself. If you count it that way, the total population is something like 4 million.

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    Default Re: The Disturbing Economics of America's Sex Trade

    Gotta watch those Southern Baptists... ;-)

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    Default Re: The Disturbing Economics of America's Sex Trade

    A larger than expected percentage of "non-vanilla" women of a wide age and attractiveness range will do sex-for-money, even those who would do it only rarely, if there is enough money and they are desperate enough, more than you would ever suspect.
    I loved going to strip clubs; I actually made some friends there. Now things are different for the clubs and for me. As a result I am not as happy.

    Customers are not entitled to grope, disrespect, or rob strippers. This is their job, not their hobby, and they all need income. Clubs are not just some erotic show for guys to view while drinking.

    NOTE: anything I post here, outside of a direct quote, is my opinion only, which I am entitled to. Take it for what you estimate it is worth.

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