There was a famous beginning to an old book about a big economic and political event that said It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
It is kind of like that now, in my opinion. A lot of guys here make a lot more money and have a lot more wealth than they did a few years ago. Skilled work is in high demand and some industries, especially finance and personal service occupations, are doing quite well.
There are plenty of people obviously seeing the expensive (based on price comparisons versus a decade ago), they have plenty of excellent reviews, and they wouldn’t charge those rates if they weren’t getting them. And technology has allowed sex work to be done quite easily as part-time work to supplement what might already be a solid income. One of the last escorts I saw in Toronto told me about her “day job” and it was a fine occupation.
And we often see the “Movin‘ On Up” effect in this business, as the theme song put it in the old TV show The Jefferson’s. I saw a lady in her early 20s not long ago in Texas. One of the best escorts I have ever seen, and I am hoping to repeat often. She is now on the higher-end of U.S. pricing and is still in high demand. But she didn’t start out that way. She started advertising on a site rather unique to Texas and got a lot of reviews on a site that tries to market itself to the middle-income in the U.S. Guys were blown away since there are very few 18-21 year old quality providers in the U.S. Once she quickly raised her rates to the upper-end of U.S. pricing and started advertising on Tryst and started getting TER reviews, the guys on the middle-class message board started blasting away. Some of them attacked her, but the more civil ones said the price increase because of the high-tech companies moving from California to Texas and these goddamn Tech guys accustomed to higher prices stole her and ruined things.
I didn’t ask her about the discussions. She might not even know they are there. She just runs her little business in a rational way and goes about her life. She does it extraordinarily well, especially for someone so young who has to navigate U.S. screening, and to me she is well worth what she charges.
Sorry if too long of a post, but this business is unique. A lot of factors go into higher prices, but all of those factors are going in the direction of higher, not lower, pricing. Supply is down due to a lot of reasons. Society has attacked this business relentlessly and younger women get influenced by that. Every sex-work market in the world, with the possible exception of Colombia, has fewer 18-25 year olds in it than a decade ago. Many younger ladies just starting out work for lower prices to establish themselves. Governments put up more barriers to entry than ever before. Canada isn’t as bad as the U.S., obviously (and thank god), but c-36 wasn’t good for the lower-end of the industry, particularly high-turnover, high-volume commercial sex at places like back rooms at strip joints. The input costs faced by most sex workers has gone up more than typical inflation, especially incall rent. And advertising costs have gone up, in no small part to the U.S. Fosta/Sesta law that attacked online advertising, and like it or not, most Tech roads run through the U.S.
Sex work prices are up everywhere in the world and they are getting their rates, so that means customers have to come to the table with more money. Nobody is going to do a bail-out package for Johns. And the industry doesn’t function like a commodity market, it functions like a personal service market. So most traditional excess inventory principles just never seem to apply to it.
I joined 2017 but really was not active (not even reading things) until around end of 2024.
