Legalize Prostitution: Economist Aug 9, 2014

choi

Prostitution  | A personal Choice/ The internet is making the buying and selling of sex easier and safer. Governments should stop trying to ban it.
www.economist.com/news/leaders/2 ... rnments-should-stop
(“Above all, the web will do more to make prostitution safer than any law has ever done. * * * Specialist sites will enable buyers and sellers to assess risks more accurately. Apps and sites are springing up that will let them confirm each other’s identities and swap verified results from sexual-health tests. Schemes such as Britain’s Ugly Mugs allow prostitutes to circulate online details of clients to avoid”)

Note:
(a) This one is placed in the “Leaders” section--at the beginning of the “newspaper” (which is how Economist identifies itself). A Leader article gives a sketch of a more detailed article that appears somewhere inside the newspaper. Indeed, you can read EITHER one but not both, depending on whether you want a summary or a full-length article (about two pages long).
(b) Thus, the text of a leader will point to that article and supply a link. My next posting deals with that (in-depth) article. So do not click it in this leader AND then click the URL of the next posting--they are one and the same.
(c) “We have dissected data on prices, services and personal characteristics from one big international site that hosts 190,000 profiles of female prostitutes (see article). The results show that gentlemen really do prefer blondes, who charge 11% more than brunettes. The scrawny look beloved of fashion magazines is more marketable than flab—but less so than a healthy weight.”

flab (n; back-formation from flabby): "soft loose flesh on a person’s body; fat"
www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/flab

Here it means “fat.”
(d) “Although prostitution is illegal everywhere in America except Nevada, old figures put its value at $14 billion annually nationwide; surely an underestimate. More recent calculations in Britain, where prostitution is legal but pimping and brothels are not, suggest that including it would boost GDP figures by at least £5.3 billion ($8.9 billion).”

It suggests the “$14 billion” figure is underestimated, because UK population (~60 millions) is one fifth of that of US.
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choi

Prostitution and the internet | More Bang for Your Buck. How new technology is shaking up the oldest business.
www.economist.com/news/briefing/ ... more-bang-your-buck

Quote:

“in many rich countries they [streetwalkers] are a minority of all sex workers; just 10-20% in America, estimates Ronald Weitzer, a sociologist at George Washington University. The wealth of data available online means it is now possible to analyse this larger and less examined part of the commercial-sex market: prostitution that happens indoors. It turns out to be surprisingly similar to other service industries.

“male prostitutes (perhaps a fifth of the commercial-sex workforce)

“Large-scale migration is another reason prices are falling. Big, rich cities are magnets for immigrants of all professions, including sex workers.

“Indoor sex work is safer than streetwalking, and the risk of arrest is lower.

“As in other bits of the economy, clients who seek niche services must pay more. Sex workers who offer anal sex or spanking earn on average $25 or $50 more per hour, respectively (see chart 2). Those who will accept two male clients at once or do threesomes with another woman command a larger premium.

“Appearance matters a great deal. The customers who reported encounters to the website we analysed clearly value the stereotypical features of Western beauty

“A prostitute’s rates also vary according to her ethnicity and nationality. What attracts a premium in one place can attract a penalty in another. According to our analysis, in four big American cities and London, black women earn less than white ones (see chart 4). * * * What counts as exotic and therefore desirable varies from place to place, and depends on many factors, such as population flows.

“A degree appears to raise earnings in the sex industry just as it does in the wider labour market. A study by Scott Cunningham of Baylor University and Todd Kendall of Compass Lexecon, a consultancy, shows that among prostitutes who worked during a given week, [college] graduates earned on average 31% more than non-graduates.

“The internet has disrupted many industries. The oldest one is no exception.


Note:
(a) “Prostitutes and punters have always struggled to find each other, and to find out what they want to know before pairing off. Phone-box ‘tart cards’ for blonde bombshells and leggy señoritas could only catch so many eyes. Customers knew little about the nature and quality of the services on offer.
(i)
(A) punter (n): "a prostitute’s client"
Oxford dictionaries
www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/punter
(B) punter (n): “chiefly British: CUSTOMER, PATRON”
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/punter
(ii) telephone booth
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_booth
(In the USA and Canada, "telephone booth" (or "phone booth") is the commonly used term for the structure, while in the Commonwealth of Nations (particularly the United Kingdom and Australia) it is a "telephone box" (or "phone box"))
(iii) tart card
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tart_card
(iv) tart (n): "DATED a prostitut"
www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/tart#tart-2

(b) “Websites such as AdultWork allow prostitutes, both those working independently and those who work through agencies and brothels, to create profiles through which customers can contact them. * * * On PunterNet, a British site, clients describe the premises, the encounter and the sex worker, and choose whether to recommend her. Such write-ups have enabled her to build a personal brand”
(i) AdultWork.com
(ii) write-up (n): "a written account; especially :  a flattering article"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/write-up

(c) “We have analysed 190,000 profiles of sex workers on an international review site. (Since it is active in America, it was not willing to be identified for this article. A disclaimer on the site says the contents are fictional; we make the assumption that they are informative all the same.) “

I can not find it.
(d) “In Britain, where brothels are illegal though prostitution is not, massage parlours advertise the rotas and prices of their workers online but are coy about the services rendered.”

rota (n; Latin, literally 'wheel'): "British A list showing when each of a number of people has to do a particular job <a cleaning rota>"
www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/english/rota
(e) “Sarah says her escort work means she can pay for her daughter’s dance and music lessons, which would be unaffordable on just her ‘civvy job.’”

civvy (n, adj): abbreviation of “civilian”
(f) “In Britain, Ugly Mugs runs an online database that prostitutes can use to check punters’ names and telephone numbers. In America the National Blacklist, a “deadbeat registry”, allows them to report men who are abusive or fail to pay.“

Ugly Mugs
uknswp.org/um/

(g) “Ireland has banned the advertising of sexual services since 1994. The prohibition has achieved almost nothing, says Graham Ellison, a sociologist at Queen’s University in Belfast.”
(i) Queen's University Belfast
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen's_University_Belfast
(public)
(ii) Belfast is in Northern Ireland. So judging from the context, the professor does research in another country: Ireland.