Guest W***ledi*Time Report post Posted June 8, 2009 "Recession means tough times for sex workers", reports Trish Crawford in the Toronto Star, 7 Jun 2009: http://www.thestar.com/living/article/646871 Excerpts (some of the numbers look a bit exaggerated?): Falling prices for services 'causing a lot of misery' and raising fears prostitutes will take more risks .... The recession has seen the street price of oral sex, the most common service, plummet from $60 last fall to $20 today. "Full service" involving intercourse has dropped from $150 to $80 ... And it's not just street prostitutes who are being hit. Escort workers, both those with agencies and independents, report a 15 per cent decline in clients, says Valerie Scott, executive director of Sex Professionals of Canada, a volunteer group working toward the decriminalization of sex work ... An hour and a half in the prostitute's home with the client's choice of services "used to be $250, and now they are asking for $60 or $80," ... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MandalayBay 575 Report post Posted June 8, 2009 Wow ... these rates seem really low. Ouch. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rickoshadows 937 Report post Posted June 8, 2009 I think the dollar amounts quoted are for survival SPs and in many cases they are comparing apples to oranges. However a 15% decline in clients might explain why we are getting more traveling girls in Ottawa from both Montreal and Toronto, despite Ottawa's reputation for no shows. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Akhenaton 221 Report post Posted June 8, 2009 despite Ottawa's reputation for no shows. Yeah, I wish we can get rid of that someday, that reputation sucks big time, especially for does who DO show up !!! GRRR. A well, I don't think the girls will be out of work anytime soon ;) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SamanthaEvans 166767 Report post Posted June 9, 2009 They're comparing apples to mangoes, I think. They don't know the difference between the inside and outside workers. The article is likely to result in a lot of haggling over prices though. Thank you, TorStar! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andee 220524 Report post Posted June 9, 2009 (edited) It is not my intention to hijack this thread..I'm only commenting further to the article in the Toronto Star. Also, it's that sociology major and in me that finds the whole thing fascinating. In Ottawa here in Mechanicsville and Vanier, 10 years ago, street hookers were getting $40-$50 for oral on the street. Full service was negotiated higher. I know this because I lived on the border of Vanier-Ottawa and I got to know what was going on. In fact, I would sometimes get propositioned, when walking home down Cote/Church St., home. I found that scene way to scary but it it's real and it's out there, or at least it was. In those days it was unheard of for dealers to sell hits of crack for $5 or $10. If that was your drug of choice, you had to buy at least half a gram and cook up the freebase yourself. Half grams are typically sold $40-$50. Get it? Even those prices haven't gone up, but quality has gone down. Now with younger girls, younger dealers and crack and meth being sold by the "hit" individually, the prices of on-street (and a lot of inside prostitution) have plummetted. You can go down to George and Cumberland St., and buy a hit of crack for $10. There are dealers on bicycles who sometimes get busted with hundreds of dollars of loose change in their cargo pant pockets. Also, as mentioned in the article, because of the Internet and Cell Phones and pressure on Police to crackdown on open street prostitution, many of them have resorted to chat lines, craigslists and other means to reel their customers in. Just ask any guy who has ever had an account on Quest or LavaLife live chat. "Looking for a generous gentlemen" $40 now gets you full service because a half gram can still be bought for that. I have a friend who lives in Hull who has befriended a street girl who last year moved from Vanier over to Eddy St. in Hull because she said the Police don't bother her as much over there and she can still make more than she would over here. It's a shame really, but it's reality. And whether we like it or not, or think we're mixing apples and oranges or think it doesn't, it does affect us other SPs. It's not only the recession, but it's also newbies out there who (both SPs and clients) who are trying to navigate the murky waters of trying to differentiate between hamburg and steak. Not that I want to be compared to meat, but hey, where does it end...spam in a can? For some girls, $20 is good money when they would have to work at Tim Hortons for more than 2 hours to clear that. Hey, $20 x 10 a day...to them that's good money. But at the end of day they often don't even have change for the bus. :evil: Edited June 9, 2009 by Mature Angela change text Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
