Stripper Economics

23Mar08

First a disclaimer:

I’m all for personal freedom…I’m for female empowerment…I’m familiar with the double standard when it comes to women and sexuality…I recognize that many individuals find themselves in difficult situations that are not their fault…yada yada yada.

That being said, I have noticed a trend.  As we all know, due to situations both financial and anatomic, a handful of women decide to become exotic dancers as some point in their lives.  (Note: This discussion also applies to other “adult” job opportunities, but for simplicity I’ll just focus on stripping)  For most of this select few, it is only a small window of time, encompassing their late teens and early twenties, where one can make a reasonable amount of money quickly and, after which time, leave it behind them and continue on life’s journey.  However, sometimes these girls’ erotic pasts come back to haunt them later in life, perhaps when they become gainfully employed or decide to run for public office.  At which time, a fair amount of these girls scream foul.  The complaint is that they were young and naïve or needed the money to pay for college (the so-called Chris Rock stripper myth).  And that’s fine.  From a purely social standpoint, I tend to agree with their complaint and, except for a few select situations, I would concur that it is indeed unfortunate that society victimizes them as I am not one to impose some type of holier-than-thou sense of morality.  However, for the sake of argument, I would like to point out that when taking a purely economic position, one can’t expect me to be sympathetic when society comes back to bite said individual for her choices.

For example, when one looks at the service being provided and the corresponding cost, it has to be recognized that there are greater factors at work.  The whole reason that particular patrons pay $1 for a 30 second visual showcase and/or fork over $20 to have someone rub her body on him for 3 minutes and 41 seconds while Ted Nugent’s “Cat Scratch Fever” blasts in his ear is due to the fact that society doesn’t approve.  This results in a relatively small number of women willing to perform the act and, consequently, forces the patron to pay the market rate.

Now I know that this isn’t flawless math due to the reality that a girl cannot be working every minute, but making $1/minute on stage and $20/5 minutes in a back room comes to $60/hr and $240/hr, respectively.  And while I recognize that the job doesn’t provide an 8 hour work day, and it’s unreasonable to think that one can work 40 hours a week… let’s face it, anyway you slice it, it destroys minimum wage.

So, how does fundamental economics come into play?  Let’s turn to the Supply-Demand curve:

As we can clearly see, the price of the services being provided corresponds to the quantity of the service available, based on the given supply and demand.  For the purposes of our argument, we’ll assume that the number of bachelor parties, “guys’ nights out”, and couples trying to spice up their relationship stays constant giving us the same demand curve. 

Now let’s look at what happens given a situation where society completely embraces stripping and the strip clubs are flooded with applications.  We’ll call this theoretical situation…Amsterdam.

All of the additional applications shift the supply curve to provide a higher quantity of available girls.  As such, the price that can be reasonably asked drops accordingly.

Now let’s look at what happens given a situation where society completely eradicates stripping due to it being the work of the devil.  We’ll call this theoretical situation…Republican Utopia.

The drop in the number of girls willing to provide the desired service shifts the supply curve to a lower quantity of available girls.  Consequently, the going rate increases as they are now at a premium.

As can be seen, it is society’s approval, or lack thereof, that ultimately controls the amount of money that can be made.  Theoretically, if society completely embraced the adult community, the price of stripping would reach a minimum and if, during such time, a huge amount of girls found stripping to be more enjoyable than working in fast food, working the drive-thru could actually pay better than working at the club.

Therefore, since it is society’s disapproval that made it worth-while for a girl to work in the strip club in the first place, I find it a little hypocritical to complain at future times in life when she becomes a victim of society’s disapproval.  Or at very least, in my opinion, it would be fair for a girl to…ahh…never mind.

 

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Tags: Stripping