Prostitution Becomes a Career Option for Millennials to Pay Off Debt
Generation Y, or the generation of the so-called “millennials”—those born between 1980 and 2000—has attracted a lot of attention. Much of it because of the financial difficulties that these 17-37-year-olds experience when they come to the end of their educational careers—or even during. Armed with degrees and fascistic levels of virtue signaling, they struggle to find meaningful paid work. But not all is lost thanks to that classic poverty alleviation and social mobility instrument known as prostitution.
A little background is needed to explain the widespread resurgence and social acceptance of prostitution among millennials. Those who have managed to secure steady income, jobs, careers, or businesses are forgiven for their shock. But take a look at any job search web site; there are many ads demanding dedication, degrees—even graduate degrees—and this or that skill. The posters of such jobs, without batting an eye, select candidates scrupulously.
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They call meetings to make their final selections. They ask for references and then they make the call. The lucky millennial on the other side of the “iPhone” can hardly believe their stroke of luck as they ponder what they’re going to do with all the money their new job might offer. But that flight of fancy into daydream land comes to an abrupt end. There are so many—too many—jobs that pay absolute zilch.
The problem demands action.
Governments in North America have been raising the minimum wage. Perhaps they should tackle the unpaid job phenomenon first. This is a problem all over the world. (Source: “Smart, educated and exploited: how ‘internships’ help lock the young out of jobs,” The Guardian, July 9, 2017.)
Inevitably, rather than support the ambitious, resourceful, or entrepreneurial, this system favors those who are already rich or well-off. The latter can continue living at home and get an allowance that allows them to pay for their commute to work and maybe even lunch. Those who cannot count on such luck—even those who choose to live with their parents—can then spend their days wondering what to do about paying off their student debts. Some of these students may also have taken out car loans, while putting serious damage on their credit cards. The fun begins after college ends.
The millennials discover that when the phone rings or there’s a knock on the door, it’s not Avon who’s come calling. It’s the debt collector. Debt collecting is one of the growth industries of our time. The other is prostitution. At least there’s a choice. Millennials can either become leeches and sell their soul, or they can sell their souls and their bodies. This article will focus on the “jobs” revolving around the latter.
Social Barriers to Prostitution Are Weak and Millennials Vulnerable
The Internet has removed many of the social and shame barriers to prostitution. No more is there a requirement to endure inclement weather and the abuse of pimps. There are comfortable new avenues accessible from your PC or smartphone, which have become veritable hookup tools. Millennials have learned something in college if nothing else: the value of a steady income.
Thus, the hookup industry is not about securing a one-time “rendezvous.” It’s about getting a regular gig; possibly, one that can even offer the luxury of avoiding the classification of the job at hand as “prostitution.” Enter paternity, maternity, and sprinkle a touch of sugar.
No, the “brilliant” solution does not involve befriending a parent with a sweet tooth and a penchant for crème caramel. The new millennial prostitution phenomenon revolves around the “sugar daddy” and even the “sugar mommy.” A random online search—only for research purpose, I promise—has revealed a myriad of possibilities for buyers and sellers, sugar mommies/daddies and “sugar babies,” to find each other. The web sites make it all happen so easily. You don’t need to own your own top-rated movie production company to benefit.
All you need as a buyer is a substantial bank account to help support a fresh-out-of-college millennial in exchange for their “friendship.” Nobody has to know what that friendship involves. A popular one is the web site that goes by the nebulous name of SeekingArrangement.com. Last year, the web site attracted about 2.5 million college students, who were looking for either a sugar daddy or a sugar mommy, depending on their preference and financial need. (Source: “Millions Of Millennials Could Be Trading Sex For Their Next Debt Payment – Here’s How,” Zero Hedge, November 15, 2017.)
The buyer receives what he/she wants, and the millennials, having found a suitable sugar daddy or sugar mommy in exchange for their personal time, get what they want: cash (or “prizes,” if the price is right). The web sites, given the borderless nature of the Internet, are fueling an international phenomenon. Millennials are facing employment problems all over the developed world, not just the United States. And not just from student debt.
Still, American millennials have accumulated some $1.5 trillion in student debt. The big banks are acknowledging this problem. UBS has determined that the higher rates of consumer debt delinquencies have grown despite the high employment rates. Thus, the problem might be less the lack of jobs and more the lack of jobs that pay a wage, let alone an adequate one. (Source: Ibid.)
Millennials Have Champagne Tastes and Not Even Beer Budgets
Millennials also have expensive tastes. They are buying expensive vehicles, taking advantage of the car-loan equivalent of the subprime mortgage. These loans are easy at first. They encourage fresh-out-of-college millennials to buy luxury imports. But eventually, the interest rate and the stagnant wage growth catch up. (Source: Ibid.)
Sooner or later, some of these BMW-driving millennials working as interns will have the chance to impress their sugar daddy or mommy when they show up for their “date.” But the burden is not all on the millennial. To qualify for the “date,” the sugar parent brings “calories.” These must amount to no fewer than $250,000 per year, on average. This is certainly one area where the more, the better. In return, a sugar daddy/mommy can enjoy such benefits as being pampered.
The current generation of graduates, whether you call them Gen Y or millennials, are having a rather different experience than their parents—or grandparents. The latter, in particular, the so-called “Baby Boomers,” born between 1946 and 1964, enjoyed a smooth path from education to the careers of their choice. They even endured far less debt when they finished college and found a job more than sufficient to help them secure a reasonable mortgage and a more-than-adequate home.
The Pew Research Center reports that there are now more millennials than Baby Boomers. That’s great for the banks, doing their interest thing, and debt collectors. But it puts pressure on the economy and society, regardless of generation. (Source: “Millennials overtake Baby Boomers as America’s largest generation,” Pew Research Center, April 25, 2016.)
Millennials have to delay buying their first house and they also pay fewer taxes. Not because the government exempts them, but because the internships and first jobs pay so little that the current runaway cost for homes—potentially a housing bubble—discourages them from even looking. Fewer taxes, meanwhile, make it more difficult for the governments, at a federal or state level, to fulfill their obligations. No doubt, one of the reasons that economists have not endorsed Trump’s ambitious tax reform plans may well owe to the drier tax pool.
Forced to Postpone Buying a Home
In more cases than not, millennials decide to postpone buying a home because of the burden of repaying their college loans and other debts. But the costs go far beyond that. Spending the tens of thousands of dollars needed to study until graduation day entails both financial and emotional costs. These not only affect home-buying decisions and possibilities, but they affect all other important life decisions, including marriage and family, of course. This combination of factors also allows for the emergence of prostitution masking as organized “sugar parenthood.” If not a career choice, it’s a survival one.
The U.S. census report for 2015 suggests that more millennials are living in poverty and that fewer are employed. (Source: “Young Adults, Then and Now,” United States Census Bureau, 2015.)
That’s hardly what most people understand as being spoiled. Then there’s that pesky problem of the future. Given that, on average, the millennial generation earns relatively much less than their parents, many of them rightly wonder if they will make it to retirement—surviving retirement is another problem altogether. This should offer some hints to financial services companies.
The 401K model could go the way of the dodo as a reliable retirement savings model. Similarly, marketing geniuses, who want to understand how to milk this new generation of young people entering the workforce and already loaded with debts, should study poverty and the poor to find out how to cater and market to them. This will give them a major step up, as they deal with millennials.
Social services may also want to step up its range and scope, because poverty phenomena, especially those of relative poverty, produce psychological and moral problems. Needs often fuel greed and exploitation. The web sites catering to sugar daddies/mommies are a clear sign that ethics are suffering.
Meanwhile, the failure of so many to build their own lives in a way that even remotely matches their childhood dreams or expectations could make depression as common as the flu. The next “Great Depression” could be more literal and have more negative implications than the one that began in 1929.
