Freakonomics: What Prostitutes Can Teach About Economics
Vložit
- čas přidán 27. 08. 2024
- Steven Levitt, author of Freakonomics, recounts a story of talking economics and business practice with a prostitute while researching for SuperFreakonomics.
Complete video available for free at fora.tv/2011/12...
I love this practical approach to fiscal concepts. As a business owner (not that kind of business... Come on people) I found that I was way undervaluing my services. Once I came to that realization I raised my prices and my sales actually went up. Once you value yourself, others value you. True for personal and business alike.
Why can’t economics always be this interesting.
"I was just trying to get access to her palm pilot."
Oh, so that's what the kids are calling it nowadays. =D
Prostitute Joke....Rich guy asks a women..."Would you sleep with me for a million $?"...the woman says, "Absolutely". Rich guy then asks, "Would you sleep with me for $1?" to which the woman asks, "What type of woman do you think I am?". Rich guy, "We've established what type of woman you are, now we're just haggling over the price".
Oh snap
kckcmctcrc, this is a very old, well established parable.
Travis....I guess it goes without saying that the oldest of parables goes hand in hand with the oldest of Professions.
It is not so old..Its said that it originates from play writer George Bernard Shaw.
Others contribute it to Winston Churchill.
Ari1234a...you do realize we're joking here? And besides, regardless of when it was said this doesn't change the fact that supposedly it's the oldest profession.Finally according to the internet (and we know the internet is never wrong) Rudyard Kipling is the originator of the phrase.
I would LOVE to see this lecture.
ryan h tyvvm!
Sadly, I fear this is not going to happen :-/
who in their right mind quits an $80k job to be a prostitute...
$400/session X 3 sessions/day X 250 worked days/yr = $300,000
300,000 > 80,000.
Q.E.D.
Gloria So
Um ah I think a lot of guys would, if they could have the prvelidge of being paid for sex.
Platypus, now THAT is hilarious.
1 session a day is still significantly more when you don't pay taxes
Regardless of the price, I wouldn't be a prostitute - i.e. have sex with women I don't find attractive nor with women who might have an STD (condom might break, and with many customers, that's many chances for condom breakage and for some customers to have STDs).
2:18 "I was just trying to get access to her palm pilot." Now THAT's the most creative term for it I've ever heard
what is palm pilot?
@@elleb2266 use internet search engine
@@elleb2266 take all the things you can do with a smart phone but take out the internet and phone/messaging parts. also take out the touch screen.
And can we get a video of that lady's lecture here on YT?
Well a large degree of "price" is what people are willing to pay for your service.
A 25% increase in prostitution services would indeed cause a downward sloping demand curve with most male customers.
lol
apparently not, but i see what you did there
This is why I love economics
I wonder what his wife thought of this.
*COMPETITION* !!
"That which constitutes the condition under which alone something can be an end in itself, has not merely a relative value, that is a price, but an inner value, that is dignity" (Kant, 1785).
It's interesting seeing the development of the career paths of people. I wouldn't known anything about Steven Levitt without his TED talk about the study he and Sudhir Venkatesh did. I could just look at this video and think "Man, this guy is weird", how he ended up in a situation where he's wondering about the economical situations of prostitutes. But I HAVE seen his old TED talks, and I DO remember that older, less suave, more awkward guy talking about the weird economics of gangs etc. Good on you Steve, for making career and study path of the weird economics of things that have existed since the dawn of man, but have rarely been acknowledged. =)
if her going rate is 400 a hour and she gets at least 5 costumers a week (id bet money that she gets more though) and there's 52 weeks a year then she would make 104000 a year and thats only working about 70 % of the year and only 1 hour a day during that time
Providing the service is only a fraction of a business owner's time. Customers don't magically find a business provider -- especially with tons of competition on the market. She (and any successful business owner) easily spends 40+ hours a week dealing with customer inquiries (most of which end up going nowhere).
I am pretty sure the price you can get has a lot to do with 1) Looks - pretty to ugly 2) Body fitness - different stroke different folks 3) Cleanliness skanky & stanky to girl next door as well as that of the client 4) Location and whose buying - Hollywood and Madison Avenue vs. Watts and the Bronx 5) Method of meeting and venue (ads, word of mouth, street, bars, brothel, etc.) 6) Willingness to oblige 7) How badly she needs the money and 8) Whether or not one of you is a cop
And then there's the truck stop.
Rollo Larson mud puddle bitches... squatting in mud puddles to clean up between services
the price depends on supply and demand. the points you said just modify the supply and modify the demand.
Basically anything that creates high dopamine in the brain will be extremely popular and profitable. e.g. Drugs(including alcohol and nicotine), Woman and Gambling.
Women do not give me much dopamine lol
Sad isn't it that we set prices on how much we can get rather than how much work is involved. Some woman lies on her back for half an hour and makes more than people working in sweatshops get in a month.
Um. Lmao. No. That's not how it fucking works. Educate yourself.
Much much more to it.
THINK.
I told my wife that I'll be conducting research on prostitutes and their economics. My work starts this Friday after a few beers. LOL!!
anchoring is how price is determined,welcome.
400 is not that much. High end prostitues make thousands of dollars of an hour and even up to 10s of thousands
hahaah your second paragraphy is funnier by the sentence, when I read "on my way to church" I lost it.
300 dollars an hour is pretty cheap.
Yes that is called target costing. See what others are charging and start from there.
$300 per hour-what he hell does she do,clean your whole hoyse,car,soet out your tax,and a happy ending.
and anither thing-prostitution has NEVER been illegal where i live
You seem to be doing well in college, so self-assured that you are better than other people.
C'mon, there's a big difference between selling products and selling your body as a service complete with some stranger's come-shot to clean up and body odors to deal with, not to mention the flab and wrinkly ugliness Mr. Freaky.
idk why sexuality is a bad thing, or why people have to hide it. Sex is what drives creation and or evolution depending on your views. It's something that has always been a part of life. In fact hiding sexuality is just odd. Dolphins have sex for fun and they're one of the most civilized creatures on the planet. I understand the overpopulation argument, but i've never understood how being sexual is a bad thing. And in a culture that is driven by economics, prostitution is intelligent . . .
Don't be fooled by over population. It's not a strong argument. Sex, food and social acceptance is the main things that drive human nature. You can sell anyone anything if you manage to tap into these carnal instincts. It's a basic need for survival. Now economics is driven by supply and demand... Biggest demand in life is survival.
Sex is natural, normal and pretty much universal. I doubt animals get shamed for sex so when did we create an unnatural thing like celibacy. It's equivalent to dieting and not eating food when you are hungry. It's wrong to see sex in this way and we have done a fine job in messing up society with the incorrect perceptions of sex and what is means to us.
Patriarchal society has caused so much damage just because of their hunger for power.
Exactly.
No sex - no humans
to make up for the 80 thousand she gave up she would have to do three clients a week at four hundred buck a pop for 44 weeks. I took off 30% from the 80 grand because I'm sure that wasnt take home. 44 times 3 is 132, I bet her healthcare costs are a nightmare, not to mention running into a lunatic or worse a psychopath.
This is totally Econ 101.
You completely missed my point. I live in texas, where a majority of prostitutes charge between 30-100$ for services (i heard on tv, never encountered one here in austin). The point is- there is nothing you can give me in a bedroom that is worth 400$. Its like charging 400$ to let me take a shit. Its part of nature, yet feels good when done the right way. Again, I am not that stupid to spend that kind of money on just sex (400 is a little under a weeks pay for me).
PolishBehemoth I live in Vegas and Ive met prostitutes and u can't even get a bj here for under $100 unless you're with one of the lower quality prostitutes. $300+ an hr is accurate, and u can get more if you're one here. it's insane how easily they can make $3k or more ,but vegas is sin city,a city of sex so idk
I guarantee there are plenty of charging way more than that
You really can't sell something more than what the other guy is selling it for because customers will choose them over you. That lady did the right thing to check what her competition is charging her. How does this professor not know that?
Documented President but not all women have the value, depends on looks, talent etc
If her entire goal is making money, why does it matter which part of her body she uses to do it?
The Levitt in my head (from listening to the podcast) looks very different.
Selling what is between your legs is no different to selling what is between your ears. It is all flesh and bone, and you are providing a service to the person paying you. The only problem for her is if she gets exploited by pimps, just like a programmer getting exploited by management. As long as she always uses protection and keeps off drugs I see no problem with her choice.
So what is the lesson? What can prostitutes teach about economics?
All kinds of fun stuff
Boiling down the babble: Take More Than You Put In (that's what Profit is), and Take As Much As You Can Get Away With (the ideal is a ruthless gangster). Swell "principles" for a society.
Great story.
So is the answer "what ever the market will bear?"
Supply and demand son, supply and demand.
Despite how amazingly hilarious this video is... i cannot believe we dont get to see what the girl actually looked like. Me personally, as a gainfully employed decent looking guy, i would never in my life pay 400$ for sex, much less- 100$. So i am dying to know who this girl is and what she looks like to charge that ridiculous amount. But i guess we will never know.
Why is it ridiculous?
You'd definitely pay in this Insta age...
veryyyy funnyyyy.... humorous analysis...
BRILLIANT!
No, I'm quite satisfied with my condition. I am quite concerned that someone would attribute concern for the exploitation of people in sweatshops as jealousy toward prostitutes though. Is it really that hard for you to appreciate being concerned about the suffering of other people?
When a prostitute charges inflationary prices, just say; Why don't you be like Cadbury Chocolates and make the BOX SMALLER?
He was attempting to login to her G-mail and make her go yahoo! !
Damn good lecture
Lol fair enough . . . but my point was that in a world of economics, where people pretty much are a product, selling sex is smart . . . your problem isn't with the people, they're just playing the game intelligently, your problem is with the system . . . and i agree with you, people are not products
And if so how much did he pay? 300 or 400 Dollars
i dont think he was able to move her demand curve
this guy needs to stop thinking anyone takes him seriously as an economist. He actually asks why more women don't become prostitutes. He does not understand prostitution and he does not understand that just because something makes a lot of money does not mean it should be incorporated in society. A "business" based on the exploitation of a gender is not an industry. It is a desperate means of surviving. I wonder if he thinks selling smack should be considiered a real business.
Ktktrav you're talking bs, especially western prostitutes mostly are not exploited, if anything, the customers get exploited with rates like 400$ an hour
Ktktrav - "Desperate", lol. Yes, that's why she quit an 80k a year job she paid to go to college to gain the skills for. Because of desperation.
Desperation to cash in on her sexuality while its market value is at its peak.
Ktktrav
I agree with the above comment - it is a really bizarre claim that someone getting not only paid for sex, not only $400 per hour, but also who has other great career prospects....to be "exploited"?
Isn't the man being exploited for his sexual desperation?
This is one of many examples of why it seems to me that feminists just hate men & boys & want to blame & attack them for everything. What will people pay me for sex? $00.00 is probably the answer.
Demeaning sex (if u hire or are one) maybe, exploiting....I just don't get how you came to that conclusion.
@@josefhospital would you risk your life for that?
Does anyone else wonder which of her phones he called >8D
I wonder if she gets patrons in other professions besides "Costumer"?
Interesting but there alternative goods in the market place. Semi free dating sex, okay there are costs involved, dinner drinks, listening to her crappy life story...all costs.
Then gain dating, love and life partner is different to sex.
You're a catch lol
what did I miss?
3:40 yeah but in all fairness you probably don't give lectures in Daisy Dukes, thigh high boots and a tied up t shirt with your clevage showing
I always ask whores if they have a 99 cent value menu
sirpsychosexy -only shows how your..#1 -broke ass and #2 have low self esteem
Learn to take a joke...
And all that your comment tells is that you are too judgmental about people and do not have a basic understanding of English Grammar.
* your --> * you are
Access to her palm pilot? Should he have confessed that?
"There's always a price..." this is why economists will never understand humans.
How to be mega-nerd and be uber-entertaining at the same time. That’s REALLY freaky!
Do you think the student that asked about how she determined her wages bought the textbook for the class? Who cares? Why does it matter if he "banged" her?
Anna, Anna, Anna...
You're*
just ask your mom, she will tell you.
this whole thing sounds like a weird fetish
funny ending
No wonder real economists can't stand this guy
Look guys! The No true scotsman fallacy at work!
Just bringing our average IQ down just that much more!
Mike Allan - Real economists hate him! Click here to find out why!
Crikey. This "economist" is the same idiot who had the answer to why drug dealers live with their moms. I happened to see a copy of his book in the book store and read that part. What is the shocking answer? That most drug dealers don't make a lot of money. No shit, Sherlock. Most people in any making venture don't make a lot of money.
Drug dealing, because it is illegal, is more cutthroat than legal business. Not only are competitors trying to get more customer dollars than you but you could be shot. I watched a documentary, for instance, about a drug dealer in Chicago. His niche in the market, so to speak, was to sell drugs at a drastically lower price. He was dealing drugs on other people's turf as a sort of free lancer which was risky for both his customers and him. If he'd been caught by the gang that controlled the neighborhood he was in he literally wouldn't live out the night.
Just like legal businesses, only a few rise to the top.
To give this guy a little bit of credit though he does make sense at times even if his conclusions are entirely predictable as he tries to act like they are earth shattering. He's carved himself out some book sales solely based on his breathless presentation. Again, though, he's correct at times even if in a trite way. Now, Paul Krugman is someone I'll never understand. He doesn't even understand how supply and demand curves, the equilibrium point work or how price floors, price ceilings and subsidies distort markets and keep them perpetually out of equilibrium. He is an ideologue disguised as an economist.
Mike Allan Do you have any proof of that bullshit you're spouting, or should I just believe it because you're Mike Allan?
@Oh Snap!!! And this is why I'm dumbfounded why I even bothered commenting on a CZcams video for the first time. Like, who even are you? Why are you swearing, and why are you mad? Its becoming a dated observation for some people, but it still boggles the mind how people become so deprived of civil behavior on the internet. Not everyone is lucky enough to experience thoughtful debates at University, but its impossible for me to understand why people express so much anti-social behavior online.
This guy is just a legend haahahahahaahah funny economics
And you've sadly missed the point of the talk. Swing and a miss big guy!
Damn Yo! You should have just listened. lol
beyler daalin kari gözükmüyo
meh
lf this guy was made of chocolate he'd eat himself
I know a lot about economics and I know a lot about prostitutes in the one thing they have in common as there is no saying no
LOL!
Hilarious,
What a con of a talk! More like a three liner joke. Is this how economists get paid?
You should read his book: Freakanomics
People with speech impediments should NOT be public speakers, I cannot watch this its too cringe worthy!
Yeggster Shane
Moron.
What are you talking about, his talk was smooth.